3,000 Post Offices to close
Urban branches targeted for cull
July 30 2002
Four post office branches will close every day for the next three years.
Royal Mail has earmarked 3,000 urban branches for closure as part of the recovery programme for the business announced by chairman Alan Leighton. There are currently 9,000 post office branches designated as urban, mainly run as franchises by independent postmaster and usually combined with other retail businesses such as CTNs.
Royal Mail expects most postmasters to co-operate with close in return for generous, Government-funded redundancy packages. The postal operator is pledging that 95 per cent of the UK population will live within a mile of a Post Office branch.
Rural branches will be protected from closure, with Government policy earmarking them as vital village resource.
