Post offices safe (From Daily Echo)

Threat of closure has been lifted from dozens of sub-post offices

5:30am Tuesday 18th November 2008 in News

Post offices safe

THE threat of closure has been lifted from dozens of sub-post offices after the Government ruled Post Office Ltd could continue to run its bank account.

Sub-postmasters had warned that thousands of branches across the country were at risk after ministers invited private firms to apply to take over the Post Office Card Account (POCA), used by almost 50,000 people in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight.

But Work and Pensions Secretary James Purnell announced he was cancelling the procurement exercise and awarding the contract for the POCA to the Post Office until 2015.

George Thomson, general secretary of the National Federation of Sub-postmasters, welcomed the announcement, saying the loss of the contract, which brought much-needed business to struggling sub-postmasters, would have “undoubtedly resulted in at least 3,000 unplanned post office closures”.