In December 2006 the Post Office, backed by the Department of Trade and industry announced that 2500 to 3000 Post Offices would be closed, mainly in rural areas. Royal Mail have announced, that Broad Chalke Post Office, is one of the 36 Wiltshire post offices which has been flagged for closure.   The consultation period runs until the 16th February 2008 (2 weeks have been added as the consultation period falls over christmas).

So why close Post Offices? Well the situation is basically down to money. Royal Mail currently operate 14000 post offices throughout the UK, which is an expensive network to operate, but this network is the lifeblood of a very profitable public body.

We can fully understand in some instances that certain post offices may have become unncessary BUT Royal Mail has axed 4000 post offices since 1999 (in 1999 there were 18000 post offices), and with further cuts they will essentially have HALVED the number by 2013. This is made more worrying by a statement made last December where Royal Mail claimed the network would be sustainable with just 5000 offices!

Royal Mail is clearly streamlining itself, and the motivation for such changes rings true of pre-privatisation. Subsidies at government level are decreasing, services which post offices provide are being made more direct, soon we will receive later post, maybe less frequently and it's all in a bid to cut costs. Closing Broad Chalke Post Office, along with 36 others in Wiltshire is only the tip of the iceberg in how services are proposed to 'change for the better'.

FACTS
Royal Mail Letters made £345m PROFIT in 2005/2006 (Royal Mail management received bonus payments of nearly £100m)
Post Offices/Sub Post Offices made £111m LOSS in 2005/2006 (The loss is down to how Royal Mail accountants choose to allocate the £10b revenue)

OVERALL ROYAL MAIL GROUP MADE £355m PROFIT in 2005/2006 - See THEIR OWN STATEMENT HERE

Taking this even further a £111m loss on the actual sub post-offices themselves might sound like a lot of money? It depends, to you and me then yes, its more money than we will ever see BUT in government terms it really isn't that much (less than the cost of two Eurofighters!). The Post Office is a NATIONAL ASSET which does NOT require funding from the state to support it as it is part of the PROFITABLE Royal mail.