Stamford Post Office branch at risk of closure
A town Post Office has been named in a list of branches under threat of closure.
Stamford’s Post Office in All Saints’ Place has been named as one of the branches at risk under a new transformation plan announced this morning (Wednesday, November 13).
More than 100 Post Office branches and 1,000 jobs could be affected by a sweeping overhaul as the group looks to boost postmaster pay by £250 million over five years.
The Post Office revealed it is looking to offload 115 directly-owned branches within its 11,500 network, which could see them transferred to retail partners or postmasters, or potentially closed.
The 115 branches put at risk, including Stamford’s, are Crown Post Offices and staffed by Post Office employees.
They are the only remaining branches owned by the Post Office, down from close to 400 in 2010.
Thousands of other Post Offices across the country are operated by retailers and independent postmasters.
Post Office chairperson Nigel Railton said the shake-up will offer a ‘new deal for postmasters’ by increasing their share of revenue and giving them a greater say in the running of the business as it looks to move on from the Horizon IT scandal that saw hundreds of subpostmasters wrongfully convicted.
The Communication Workers Union (CWU) union has called on the Post Office to halt the plans and for the Government to intervene.
A Post Office spokesperson said: “We are considering a range of options to reduce our central costs.
“This includes considering the future of our remaining directly managed branches, which are loss-making.
“We have long held a publicly-stated ambition to move to a fully franchised network and we are in dialogue with the unions about future options for the directly managed branches.”
Stamford’s Post Office was first located at 4 Red Lion Square, now occupied by Lanes Fine Jewellery from 1874 to 1896.
The All Saints’ Place branch opened for business on April 6, 1896 and was enlarged in 1937 to include a sorting office in Horseshoe Lane, which is now the Cosy Club.
The words VR Post Office are engraved on the building.
Are you affected by the Post Office’s plans? Email news@lincsonline.co.uk.
