The Post Office Card Account Under Threat

9.38.00am UTC (GMT +0000) Thu 19th Jun 2008

Left to right, Pat Patel (Sub-postmaster at the Florian Avenue Post Office) and Mrs Burrows hand over hundreds of post cards from POCA users to Tom Brake MP.

The future of the remaining local Post Offices could be threatened according to two local sub-postmasters, Pat Patel of the Florian Avenue Post Office and Ashok Barot of the Middleton Circle Post Office.

The threat comes from the uncertainty surrounding the contract for Post Office Card Accounts (POCA). The Government have still not decided which company will be awarded the contract to run the Post Office Card Account (POCA2) from 2010. The National Federation of Sub-Postmasters estimates that if Post Office Ltd (POL) is not awarded the contract, around 3,000 post offices could be forced to shut down.

The National Federation of SubPostmasters have started a campaign to ensure that POCA2 will be secured for POL. The NFSP have issued special postcards to their customers and supporters of POCA which have been sent to MPs around the country to secure MPs backing for the campaign.

Tom Brake commented: 'If Post Office Ltd fail to win this contract, we could see a further round of Post Office closures, hot on the heels of the last savage cuts.'

To learn more about the POCA issue and how to provide a post office network with a sustainable future visit: www.nfsp.org.uk or go to your local post office.