The Committee agreed that the Sub-Group should meet again and send a second letter to the Minister. The Senior Democratic Services Officer was instructed to send a reminder to all those Members who had not yet responded to the his earlier messages requesting details about the post offices in their villages.
Council RESOLVED that:
This Council regrets the loss of any post offices in South Cambridgeshire and notes with concern the announcement by the Government on 14 December 2006 of Ministers’ plans to close 2,500 Post Office branches across the UK.
This Council further notes the social importance of Post Offices to the well being of communities and individuals in South Cambridgeshire.
This Council believes that the recently announced closure programme is unnecessary and calls on the government to end the branch closure programme, open up further business opportunities for the network and carry out a review of which additional Government functions could be carried out through Post Offices.
This Council welcomes the decision of the Government to withdraw its previous proposals to scrap completely the Post Office Card Account (POCA), but calls on Ministers to ensure that any replacement POCA should be open freely to all pensioners and benefit recipients who want one. This Council calls on the Government to avoid putting pressure on current and future POCA users to switch to having benefits and pensions paid directly into bank accounts.
The Committee agreed to set up an informal task and finish group of Councillors R Hall, Mrs EM Heazell, AG Orgee and Mrs HM Smith. This group will report back to the Committee on how best to respond to the Government’s consultation exercise, basing the proposed response on the Committee’s discussions. The response will be copied in to Postwatch.
The Senior Democratic Services Officer agreed to send the consultation form, with Postwatch’s two page explanation of the consultation process, to all Members.