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Press Release

Stop A “Beeching Axe” Falling On Rural Post Offices

11 December 2006

The Government must take responsibility face for preventing the axing of thousands of rural post offices which would damage rural communities and their sustainability.

This is the message from the Campaign to Protect Rural England [1] as the nation waits to see whether rural post offices will be thrown a life line by the Government or be consigned to wholesale closures from 2008 [2].

‘Despite a clear and articulate campaign across the land led by the National Federation of Subpostmasters [3], there is still no sign that the great social and environmental value of the network of rural post offices has been recognised’ said Tom Oliver, Head of Rural Policy at CPRE.

‘It would be a shameful were the Government to wash its hands of this urgent issue. The welfare of many people who live in rural areas and specially those who are old or young or without cars is at stake’ Tom Oliver continued.

CPRE’s own research and monitoring of local rural communities [4] indicates that rural post offices play a key role in:

  • making it possible to live and work in smaller rural settlements without excessive dependence on car journeys;
  • retaining a day to day central place for much community life, particularly significant for the young, old, infirm and vulnerable and;
  • acting as a seed bed for many local businesses, specially where a local shop and a post office are combined.

‘CPRE passionately believes that viable rural communities benefit many people and specially those who live, work in or visit the countryside. Our research, as well as the Government’s, suggests this is the majority of the population, so the Government would be seriously failing if it let the rural post office network decline. That’s what will happen unless it comes up with an imaginative scheme to secure the network’s future,’ Tom Oliver concluded.



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Campaign to Protect Rural England

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