Ministers were accused of decimating Britain’s network of post offices after it was confirmed yesterday that 2,500 will be forced to close.

Almost a fifth of post offices will be shut by early 2009 under a timetable announced by Alistair Darling, the Trade and Industry Secretary.

No decision has yet been taken on exactly where the cuts will fall, but the Post Office will begin drawing up plans within six to eight weeks.

The Conservatives said that the announcement spelt the “near certain death of the village post office” and would leave vulnerable people, including pensioners, isolated.

Campaign groups said that the closures would bring misery to rural communities and claimed that the Government’s public consultation on the closures had been a sham.

The Times reported in December that Royal Mail had urged ministers to shut as many as 7,000 post offices to stem mounting losses.

Mr Darling told MPs that the Government was committed to sustaining a national network. But he said that only about 4,000 of the UK’s 14,300 post offices are commercially viable, while losses had doubled from £2 million a week to £4 million since 2005, making cuts inevitable.

The slimmed-down network will receive a £1.7 billion package of support up to 2011, £750 million of which will be spent on subsidies for unprofitable post offices.

Mr Darling announced a deal with BT that will allow the Post Office to offer broadband services – one of a number of initiatives designed to attract customers back to its branches. In addition, 500 “outreach locations” – postal services accommodated in village halls, pubs and community centres, or roaming vans – would be created to mitigate the effects of the closures.

The Post Office will begin drawing up between 50 and 60 regional plans, which will be the subject of local consultation, within two months. The Government hopes that all the closures can be completed within 18 months from then, although critics say that this is ambitious and that the times-cale should be extended.

“Minimum access criteria” are intended to ensure that 99 per cent of the population will be within three miles of their nearest office, and 95 per cent of the rural population.

The Post Office will also be required to consider obstacles such as rivers and mountains, and to open new branches if further closures leave an area without access to services.

Alan Duncan, the Shadow Trade and Industry Secretary, said that these requirements “mean that even successful post offices may close just because of their geography”.

Referring to earlier cuts, as a result of which the post office network had “crumbled” from over 18,400 since 1999, he added: “By the time of the next general election this Government will have closed over a third of the entire network.”

After the closure plans were made public before Christmas, more than 2,500 individuals, community groups and local government bodies took part in the consultation exercise.

Andy Furey, of the Communication Workers Union, said: “It seems the Government had premeditated the future of 2,500 post offices throughout the sham that was called a consultation period. Thousands of submissions were submitted. However, it is questionable whether the Government took notice.”

The National Pensioners Convention condemned the closures, adding that post offices offered a lifeline for millions of elderly people.

Colin Baker, general secretary of the National Federation of SubPostmasters, said that the closures would be the “first vital steps” to building a sustainable network. “It is time to look forward, not back,” he added.

Disappearing pillar of the Community

14,300 post offices in the UK
18,400 in 1999
2,500 post offices to be closed
£4m a week lost across the network now
£2m a week lost across the network in 2005
4m fewer weekly customers than in 2005
3m people renewed their tax disc online in 2006
£2bn invested by the Government since 1999
£1.7bn in additional Government support up to 201
£150m annual subsidy paid to unprofitable post offices
500 new “outreach locations” to be created in vans, village halls and community centres
70 post offices to be transferred into branches of WH Smith
16 people a week on average use each of the 800 smallest rural post offices

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