Council agree to oppose Post Office closures
PLANS to oppose Post Office closures in the region have been backed by the wider council this week after a motion put forward by a Stranraer councillor.
Stranraer and North Rhins councillor John Dougan, seconded by council leader Ivor Hyslop, submitted a motion at a full-council meeting on Tuesday to "condemn these proposals as being short-sighted" and the council agreed that they should oppose plans to close the "vital services."
The motion read: "Dumfries & Galloway Council notes with alarm proposals to downgrade Post Offices across Dumfries & Galloway; condemns these proposals as being short-sighted; and undertakes to make clear its opposition to the plans to close and downgrade local post
offices by responding in the strongest possible terms to the consultation on these mistaken proposals."
The six-week consultation process is due to come to an end on September 29th.
A report from Leslie Jardine, Executive Director Community and Support Services, said that any opposition put forward by the council would require clear reasons for it.
He added: "The final response from the Council will be sent a few days prior to the end of the consultation period, to allow the maximum time for evidence to be gathered."
The report also states: "The Council's Group Manager of Economic Regeneration advises that while the negative and direct impact on individual businesses of the proposed closure programme is obvious, the Economic Regeneration service is extremely limited in terms of its ability to intervene.
"It may be however, that once the impact of regionwide closures and final decisions by individual businesses is understood, that dialogue could take place with those businesses keen to restructure."
A second motion was also put forward and backed by the council. This came from Geoff Lever and Ronnie Nicholson, who said: "This Council recognises that in a largely rural region such as Dumfries and Galloway where tens of thousands of people do not live in settlements of any kind and many thousands more live in relatively isolated hamlets and small villages, the maintenance of the existing Universal Service Obligation for postal deliveries must be the paramount outcome of the current Independent Review of
the Postal Services Sector.
"It therefore fully supports the establishment of a Universal Service Obligation Support Fund with fully-costed contributions from those companies competing with the Royal Mail within the Postal Services Sector in order to ensure that all households and businesses, irrespective of their geographic location, receive the same high standard of postal delivery services.
"This Council further recognises that the current situation where the regulator, Postcomm, is funded solely by the Royal Mail places Royal Mail at a severe commercial disadvantage compared to its competitors and is therefore untenable and supports the view that all companies involved in the provision of postal services within the UK should pay a levy in order to co-fund the regulator.
"This Council instructs officials to make a submission to the current Independent Review of the Postal Services Sector incorporating the views contained within this motion."
Russell Brown this week said that he too is highly concerned about the impact such closures would have on local businesses.
He said: "I know that several local businesses use the Sheuchan Street branch because of the convenience and efficiency of the service, and there are concerns that if the Tesco branch is the only Post Office in the town this would slow down their transactions."
"I know that several local businesses use the Sheuchan Street branch because of the convenience and efficiency of the service, and there are concerns that if the Tesco branch is the only Post Office in the town this would slow down their transactions."
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Weather for Newton Stewart
Tuesday 22 May 2012
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Temperature: 8 C to 16 C
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