Controversial plans to franchise Perth’s Crown Post Office have been denounced as an attack on Scotland’s newest city and its people.
The Communication Workers Union (CWU) described the Post Office’s move as “slash and burn” and said it risked destroying the service.
Earlier this year, the Post Office unveiled proposals to franchise more than 70 Crown Post Offices, with five of them in Perth, including the one on South Street.
Under the plans, the site would be taken on by a retailer, who would provide the postal services from within the new shop.
The move comes as the Post Office bids to address the losses made by many of the branches, with Perth said to have recorded a deficit of £96,000 over the past 12 months.
It has committed to bringing the Crowns to profit by 2015 and is convinced that franchising is the way to go.
Post Office representative Connie Hewitt said many branches were “losing a great deal of taxpayer’s money” and stressed that it was undertaking a “modernisation programme, not a closure programme”.
Communication Workers Union assistant secretary Andy Furey, however, believes that bosses are seeking simply to make the branches cheaper, no matter the effect upon service or jobs.
“This is unnecessary and the Post Office has got it wrong,” he said.
“I am told that the service here in Perth is absolutely first class and that the public value the service they receive.
“If the Post Office is allowed to get away with this, it will be a dumbing down of the status of Perth and a direct attack on the city and its people.
“There is 150 years of experience behind the counter in Perth’s Crown and, if the Post Office gets its way, you will lose that expertise, dedication and the quality of service they provide.”
Mr Furey said there were numerous steps that could be taken to make branches such as that on Perth’s South Street more profitable, but these were being ignored.
“New services could be added and unused space on the upper floors better used or, alternatively, the branch could relocate to a cheaper building, still within the city centre.
“In its drive to bring the Crowns to profit by 2015, however, the Post Office has simply gone for a slash and burn approach.”
He said he feared services would be reduced and staff forced into redundancy. Many of Mr Furey’s concerns are shared by councillors from all political parties, including Perth City North representative Dave Doogan.
He said: “We are Scotland’s newest city and almost uniquely we boast a growing population.
“What we are seeing from the Post Office is that this counts for nothing when they are looking to save a few bob.
“The Post Office is there to provide people with vital services and I do not think that Scotland’s newest city should have this taken away in its first months.”
Labour councillor Archie MacLellan said: “The Crown Post Office provides a dedicated specialist service to Perth and is seen by many, including myself, as representing a vital part of the community.
“I am firmly of the belief that the franchising of the Crown Post Office in Perth will lead to the loss of staff and services and in time, perhaps, to the loss of the service in its entirety.”
In the region of 10,000 post office branches across the UK are classed as “franchise” operations, with the Crown branches accounting for just a third of all premises.
Proposals to make sweeping changes to the Crown branches coupled with an ongoing dispute over pay and conditions have already led to two days of strikes.