SOUTH Down MP Margaretxa0Ritchie MP has warned of the dangers of privatising the postal service andxa0spoken in favour of retaining post offices in rural areas.
Speaking ahead of a debate in the House of Commons today (Monday 2 September), which shexa0participated in, Ms Ritchie said:xa0″The mail and postal service plays a key role in the life of myxa0constituents, and stands at the centre of much that is good in the localxa0community.
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South Down MP Margaret Ritchie has called for the continuation of a publicly owned xa0rural postal service.[/caption]The local post office and the mail service are central to bothxa0economic and social life in South Down. The postal service plays a vitalxa0role in connecting our society, especially for the elderly and mostvulnerable who may be excluded from other forms of communication.
“Further cuts to our postal service risk isolating many in our society byxa0creating a two-tier network that separates the connected and the dislocatedxa0and such a development would be bad for our society and bad for our economy.
“I am worried that the inevitable market pressures from privatisation willxa0place further strain across the postal service and parts that are not asxa0profitable, especially in remote or rural areas, will be closed. We shouldxa0not and cannot let this happen. As we have witnessed with previousxa0privatisations once the horse has bolted and the rational of marketxa0practices takes force it can be a very difficult to xa0reverse or evenxa0moderate the impacts. And despite assurances to the contrary, the end resultxa0is likely to be a reduced and more expensive service with a particular fearxa0that rural services will be the canary in the coal mine.
“We have received lukewarm reassurances that the universal servicexa0obligation will be retained but again the fear is that once a private ownerxa0comes under financial and competitive pressure they will seek to change thexa0terms of this important social compact. It will be completely unacceptablexa0at any point for rural customers to have to pay more for their service and Ixa0want assurances that this will never be the case and that we are not on axa0slippery slope toward the erosion of the universal service obligation.
“Where modernisation puts postal services back at the centre of the localxa0community and acts to drive the rural economy I am completely behind it. Forxa0example, there is a clear case for allowing post offices to providexa0transaction services for high street banks from their branches. However, Ixa0fear that this modernisation plan will leave a reduced service at a higherxa0cost to the consumer and call on the UK government to ensure that ruralxa0services are protected,” xa0added Ms Ritchie.
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