Covid: More than 250 Post Office branches remain closed

More than 250 Post Office branches that closed due to Covid-19 had not reopened by the time lockdown restrictions were lifted in June, it has been revealed.

Figures seen by the BBC show 1,183 UK branches had been shut for a month or more since March 2020, but 260 had not reopened by 30 June this year.

The Post Office said the pandemic had "impacted our ability" to open.

Support charity Citizens Advice said the closures "hit some of our most vulnerable residents the hardest".

"Elderly and socially isolated residents rely on post offices for invaluable services as well as social interaction which helps them to stay well and connected to their communities," a spokeswoman added.

Post offices were permitted to remain open throughout coronavirus lockdowns in all four UK nations, but wider restrictions forced surrounding businesses to close and bans on most foreign travel impacted the viability of many branches.

Brian and Joanne Young ran a branch in Neston, Cheshire, until they announced in June they could no longer afford to keep it open.

Mr Young said the branch had "lost a lot of footfall during the pandemic" due to businesses which needed banking services closing, and "lost transactions like travel money and travel insurance, which give us a form of income on commission", had also had an impact.

"All our overheads stayed the same and unfortunately, we suffered a big loss on the shop and we couldn't afford to sustain it any more," he added.

Branches were not able to access some of the government's coronavirus support packages, but the Post Office was given a £50m subsidy "to protect access to essential services in commercially-challenging locations".

The closure has left Neston, which has seen three banks shut in recent years, and its 8,000 residents with nowhere in the town that can handle banking transactions.

Liz McBayn, who manages the Claire House Hospice charity shop two doors down from the post office, said her staff used to "do all our banking and our daily cash transactions" at the branch, but would now have to travel a mile to the post office in Little Neston.

She said that would mean having to close the shop, which could see her "losing revenue".

Justin Madders, the Labour MP for Ellesmere Port and Neston, has started a petition to keep the town's post office open and has called on the company to fund it.

He said it was not "always that easy to get a retail partner for a post office to stay open, so with the kind of profits the Post Office make, they should be using that money to support these locations to ensure there is a continued presence there".

Other towns and villages, such as Birkenhead on Merseyside, Castleton in Greater Manchester and Hollinfare in Cheshire, are facing a similar situation.

A Post Office spokesman said 90% of its branches stayed open in 2020 and there were "a range of reasons" why some branches may not have reopened, such as "older postmasters deciding that, after shielding and lockdowns, they no longer wish to run a post office".

"We know how important Post Office services are to a local community which is why where a branch does close, we seek to find a temporary or permanent solution as quickly as possible," he added.

Citizens Advice said temporary closures were "often far from temporary" and two-thirds of all closed branches had taken more than a year to reopen.

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