THE Government's decision to renew its contract with the Post Office to provide the Post Office Card Account has been welcomed across West Devon.
The card account is used by people to withdraw pensions and benefits. The Government had been considering handing over the payment of these from post offices to a private company.
West Devon and Torridge MP Geoffrey Cox welcomed the 'belated' decision after making a series of representations to ministers on the issue and warning of the 'devastating consequences' that would follow in rural areas from non-renewal of the contract.
According to a recent survey of more than 60 West Devon and Torridge post offices conducted by the MP, more than a quarter of customers at 43 post offices used the card account. The business represented more than half of the transactions conducted by 28 post offices in the constituency and more than a quarter of the income for 39 branches.
The National Federation of Sub-postmasters had warned that 3,000 additional post offices would close if the service was removed, while the Labour head of the Treasury Select Committee, John McFall, warned that the number could be as high as 6,000.
Mr Cox said: 'I am highly relieved that the Government has seen sense and has finally, if belatedly, ensured the survival of the Post Office Card Account.
'I am glad that the pressure exerted by MPs of all parties has had an impact, and a wholly avoidable move that would have caused a meltdown of the Post Office network has now been avoided.'
He regretted that the Government had waited until now to make the decision. 'Their dithering has merely led to even more demoralising uncertainty within the Post Office network at a time when the brutal closure programme has already strained the rural network to breaking point,' he said.
Liberal Democrats in West Devon also welcomed the decision. Cllr Alison Clish-Green, leader of the Liberal Democrat group, said it meant post offices had a better chance of staying open.
'But this is a U-turn that should never have had to happen in the first place. The Government should have realised the importance of post offices to communities and awarded the new contract to the network without these months of delay.
'Instead, local branches have had to deal with the uncertainty that ministerial dithering and unnecessary contracting processes has caused. Hopefully, local branches can now plan ahead knowing they will continue to pay out pensions and benefits,' she said.
Ravi Jhangiani, sub-postmaster in Tavistock and president of Plymouth, North and East Cornwall branch of the National Federation of Sub-postmasters, said the federation had been campaigning for the U-turn and it was good news for the network as a whole as without it there would have been more closures.
Allenton Fisher, sub-postmaster at Okehampton, said: 'It would have been a disaster if we had lost it. It would have meant the closure of post offices smaller than us.
'I am really pleased for retired people and those with benefits. They feel comfortable dealing over a secure counter but would have felt uncomfortable over a shop counter. Older people prefer to do their transactions at a Post Office.'