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County council may run post office services
6:35pm Sunday 9th March 2008
By Tom Moseley »
LANCASHIRE County Council bosses are considering taking over threatened post offices.
Talks have been held with the Post Office to look at moving some threatened branches into council-owned buildings such as libraries.
If the plans get the go-ahead, the council could deliver the services itself on a part-time basis.
The move follows an announcement by Essex County Council that it plans to spend up to £1.5 million to "save" threatened branches in its area.
It would make Essex the first council in the country take over services, but Lancashire County Council's cabinet member sustainable development Tony Martin confirmed they were "actively looking at" at a similar scheme.
He said: "It's early days, but we have held talks with the Post Office to look at whether we can put post office services where we have spare space.
"We have 84 libraries, and we know what the running costs are, so we are just looking at delivering the service.
"It might come to nothing, but we are exploring it with the post office and our libraries."
Costs, staff training issues and possible security concerns would have to be looked at, Coun Martin added.
County Hall has already protested about the plans to shut 56 branches in the county, including 24 in East Lancashire alone.
Blackburn with Darwen council, which is in charge of its own library service, is also opposing the closure programme, which has caused outrage by earmarking Sunnyhurst, Darwen, and Preston New Road, Blackburn for the axe.
Council leader Colin Rigby, who last week met with Post Office bosses to raise his concerns, said plans for the council to run its own services were not being considered "for the moment."
He said he would wait for the outcome of the consultation period before deciding what to do next.
Burnley council leader Gordon Birtwistle said running post office services was for the county council to look at.
He added: "It's not something we as a borough council could fund.
"We are struggling to pay for what we have already got."
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