Winchester City Council agree to a review of the Postal Services after Martin Tod's presentation at the Guildhall last night.

12.42.00am GMT Tue 20th Jan 2009

Winchester City Council responds to Martin Tod's request to set up review of local Postal Services

Following a presentation at the Guildhall last night (Monday, January 19, 2009) by Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Candidate, Martin Tod, Winchester City Councillors of all parties and none agreed to set up a review of postal services in the Winchester District.

Mr Tod presented to the City Council's Principal Scrutiny Committee, including the results of a survey he ran amongst users of the city centre post office last summer.

In response, Conservative Councillor Barry Lipscomb proposed that a review of post offices be included as part of the council's Scrutiny Work Programme. Liberal Democrat Cllr Kelsie Learney seconded the motion, and it was agreed.

Mr Tod commented:

We've seen a lot of change to postal services in the Winchester district in the last year, with the Crown Post Office moving into Smith's, five sub-post offices closing and earlier collection times from many local post boxes.

People have been concerned about all these changes, and many people feel that the service has got worse. Particularly in Smith's, there's been real concern about whether there's been enough staffing and at the size of the queues.

In other areas, such as Kent, local authorities have directly intervened to maintain post office services.

All the evidence is that this change isn't going to stop. We need to learn from what has happened and make sure we're ready to respond to any future changes that the Government proposes.

The Council has the power to investigate any service that has a significant impact on its residents.

Mr Tod's survey showed

86% said the post office's service had got worse since moving to W.H. Smith

0.6% said it was better

Average waiting time was 30 minutes

Normally only 3 tills staffed