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Public meeting about proposed closure of Stirling University Post Office

A public meeting on the proposed closure of Stirling University Post Office took place on 25th February at 5.30pm. The venue for the meeting was Lecture Theatre W1, which is located within the University's Cottrell Building. Post Office Ltd were represented at the meeting.

For those travelling to the meeting by car the easiest way to access the Lecture Theatre is via the Cottrell Building's Mail Room entrance, which is located directly opposite the Logie Lecture Theatre at the east end of the main car park.
There will be signs, and 'bodies' out,directing attendees to W1. Post Office Ltd will be represented at the meeting.

The consultation on the University branch closure finished on 3rd March.

Post Office Closures

Post Office Ltd has announced that five of the six closures proposed will go ahead. The branches at Riverside and Callander East End will close permanently. The branches in Gargunnock, Buchlyvie and Thornhill will also close and be replaced with a mobile outreach service for up to 10 hours per week from late February 2008.

The branch at Cultenhove Road in St Ninians, previously earmarked for closure, will now remain open. In it’s place Post Office Ltd have announced that it proposes to close the branch at Stirling University instead with consultation on this closure starting on 22nd January for six weeks.

Details of the proposed closures were first announced by Post Office Ltd on 23rd October 2007 and were met with strong community opposition during the six-week consultation period that followed.

Council Leader Corrie McChord reacted to the news by saying, “Despite active campaigns by all the communities involved Post Office Ltd have only conceded that the branch at Cultenhove Road remains viable. While this is a victory for the community of Cultenhove, and one we are very pleased to see it is extremely disappointing overall that the argument presented by the Council and by the other communities have fallen on deaf ears. In particular for Gargunnock, Buchlyvie and Thornhill we cannot understand why they feel that a mobile service is the most appropriate way to deliver post office services for these communities. The next step for Stirling Council will be to ask Postwatch to press for a review of these outreach proposals.”

Assistant Chief Executive of Stirling Council Rebecca Maxwell expressed concern about the consultation process carried out by Post Office Ltd. She explained, “We believe that the consultation process has not been sufficiently detailed or transparent and we have made a submission to the UK Government Inquirybased on our experience of the Network Change programme. This submission highlights our concerns about the consultation process, the business case made by Post Office Ltd, the analysis on which the decisions about closure have been made and the restricted role allowed to the local council in the process.”

Stirling Council worked closely with community councils during the consultation period to support public debate and discussion of the proposals. As well as council officers attending all the public meetings, an on-line petition was also placed on the Council website which formed part of the overall consultation response made by the Council to Post Office Ltd.

UK Parliament Inquiry into the Post Office Network Change Programme

This Committee's report was published on 8th February

The House of Commons Business & Enterprise Select Committee is undertaking an inquiry into early experiences of the Post Office’s ‘Network Change Programme’ for restructuring the sub-post office network.

The inquiry will focus in particular on the effectiveness of the consultation process and implementation of the access criteria; individual post office closure proposals are outside the scope of this inquiry. Specific examples will only be considered where these contradict the terms of the Government’s framework for the restructuring programme.

The Committee invites brief written submissions by 5.00pm on 10 January 2008.

Further details from the Committee webpage

Initial Proposal

Stirling was one of the first areas in Scotland to undergo a Westminster government led review of the post office network. On Tuesday 23 October Post Office Ltd announced the proposed closure of six of the 41 post offices in the Stirling Council area starting from February 1 2008.

These post offices are :

Cultenhove, St Ninians.
Callander, East End
Riverside, Stirling
Gargunnock
Buchlyvie
Thornhill

Post Office Ltd. proposes to serve the communities of Gargunnock, Buchlyvie and Thornhill with an outreach service from Kippen. They have said that possible types of outreach service could include a mobile service visiting small communities at set times, a hosted service operated within third party premises for restricted hours each week, or a partner service within the premises of a local partner (such as a shop).

Post Office Ltd consulted on these proposals for a period of six weeks, which finished on Monday 3 December.

Stirling Council is very concerned about the impact that these closures will have on Stirling's communities and businesses, particularly the economic viability of communities and its impact on vulnerable citizens and communities. Stirling Council also has concerns about the consultation process itself, particularly the lack of detail about why particular branches have been selected for closure. We have raised these concerns with Post Office Ltd.

We have analysed the impact these proposed closures will have on the communities they serve and submitted this report to Post Office Ltd as our formal response to their public consultation.

During the consultation period a number of well-attended public meetings, mainly organised by Community Councils, took place in all of the communities affected by the proposals. Post Office Ltd. were represented at all of these meetings and noted all of the issues and concerns raised by communities about the proposed closures.

Stirling Council ran an electronic petition throughout the consultation period which was open to everyone and allowed people to register their concerns about the proposals and make comments on specific proposals. Over 370 people signed the petition and many of them made comments. A copy of the petition and all of the comments received was submitted to Post Office Ltd. along with the Council's response to the proposal.

Post Office Ltd and Postwatch will now consider all of the comments and consultation responses received and a final decision on the proposals is anticipated in January.