| CHURCH HALLS could be used to provide postal services in urban areas as part of a new plan to boost the ailing post-office network.
As 2500 post offices currently look set for closure across the country, Post Office Ltd this week announced a plan to set up 500 “outreach” branches in towns and cities, using locations such as church halls, libraries, and job centres as a base.
The proposed branches will be subject to the success of a trial, and would offer a reduced postal service in these community venues. Some areas will be served by a van. The announcement follows the successful opening of 100 “outreach” outlets in rural areas in recent years, a number of them based in church premises.
The Revd Peter Cunliffe is Vicar of Hemingford Grey in the diocese of Ely, where a full-time post office was opened in the church’s parish centre after the village post office closed. He backed the principle of using church buildings as post offices. “Churches are obvious locations for post offices, and I would encourage PCCs to consider it,” he said.
“There are a number of practical issues, though, and the fact that they would not be open all the time means they would not meet everybody’s needs, and it also depends on the individual postmaster being prepared to provide a peripatetic post office.”
The post office in Hemingford Grey was this week waiting to hear whether it would survive the latest round of closures. Mr Cunliffe, who is nominally the sub-postmaster, said he hoped that they were sufficiently “high-profile” to continue their service, which is “much appreciated” in the village.
The Revd Annette Reed, who is now a vicar in the diocese of Ely, was Vicar of Sheepy Magna in Leicestershire when a post office was opened at the base of the church tower in 2003.
She supported the use of churches in this way, but warned: “Developing church buildings for community use is the way forward, as closing a post office takes away not just a practical service; but there is the community aspect as well. However, one caution would be over security. In Sheepy Magna, people were concerned about security, and it was always at the back of our minds. This would need to be addressed for churches, perhaps through installing CCTV.”
Last month, the broadcaster Joan Bakewell urged that more churches be used as rural post offices.
Senior clergy including the Bishop of Exeter, the Rt Revd Michael Langrish, and the Chapter of Lincoln Cathedral have opposed the planned post-office closures.
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