Simon Hughes meeting with local Post Office managers as they struggle to cope with demand
October 15, 2009 4:17 PM
Simon Hughes, Liberal Democrat MP for North Southwark and Bermondsey, has revealed that post office users are not satisfied with the service from local post offices. Since the closure of four post offices in his constituency last year, the Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament has been collecting views of customers at existing branches as well as pressing Post Office management and the government to do more to help.
The results of Simon's survey earlier this year show that the average time it takes to be served in post offices in Southwark is 19 minutes. One in five people wait more that 30 minutes. Over half the people questioned have left a queue because it was taking too long to be served. Worryingly, this means that the post office is losing income because some customers give up rather than have long waits. 11 out of every 20 survey respondents believe that there are not enough staff in the post office which they use. The worst results were for the Walworth Road post office in which the average waiting time was 25 minutes and where over 7 out of 10 of customers believe that there were not enough staff.
One constituent visiting the London Bridge branch (after nearby Dockhead and Bermondsey Street have been closed and Borough High Street has been moved) reported 24 customers were in the queue while only 3 staff were serving.
As well as raising complaints with the Managing Director of Post Office Ltd, Simon has recently met with the management of the Blackfriars post office. He will also be meeting with the managers at Walworth Road and London Bridge shortly.
Simon said "I am a huge supporter of our Post Offices and believe they need to be used and supported. When the government forced the Post Office to close four more local branches last year, I predicted that the government's closure of these post offices would have a huge impact on our community, particularly those who are most vulnerable.
It was obvious that the four local post office closures would have a knock on effect on existing branches as customers moved to use them. It is clear that the post offices have not been able to cope with the increased demand with some people waiting almost an hour to be served. Some pensioners and disabled people find standing for long periods of time extremely difficult, especially after having had to walk further than they used to. Extra staff should have been put on to ease the pressure, but this has clearly not been done effectively enough."
The poor level of Post Office service now being experienced by local customers is clearly unacceptable. As the experiences of local residents, business people and visitors show, this poor service is now losing the Post Office money as customers leave the queues in frustration, without making their purchase. The worst offender has been Walworth Road Post Office, where the additional demand after the closure of East Street, Maddock Way and other branches has led to unacceptably long queues.
The shortsighted approach of closing post offices by Conservative and Labour governments means that we have all lost out. I will continue to pass on the experiences of my constituents to Post Office management, ask for more resources in existing post offices, and continue to press the government at every opportunity to keep our remaining branches open and better staffed."
ENDS
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