RISHI Sunak MP has vowed to restore an “acceptable” post office service back to Northallerton after constant disruption and ‘last-minute’ closures for the local branch have led to angered residents hitting out at the “diabolical” issues they’ve had to put up with.
During the pandemic, people that consistently use the Post Office have been greeted with sudden closure notices at the door and ‘varied’ opening times with little explanation from the company. This has included closures on Sundays and early closing on weekdays and Saturdays.
The Post Office has previously moved to clarify its position – saying that the closures were down to staff having to self-isolate during the Covid-19 pandemic and were ‘short-term’.
Read more: Rishi Sunak given assurances over Northallerton Post Office
However, this has done little to calm the situation, as residents have still seen an inconsistent level of closures at the end of last year and into 2022.
Throughout the issues in Northallerton, regular Post Office users have been in constant contact with the town council and Richmond MP, Rishi Sunak, which has seen Mr Sunak meet with representatives of the Post Office and WH Smith.
The Post Office closed its office in the High Street to move into the WH Smith store more than two years ago.
Despite having no update about the Post Office service since October last year, Mr Sunak has now issued assurances to people in Northallerton that a normal service from the Post Office will operate in the town from now on.
This comes after the MP organised a meeting at the branch with Nick Read, chief executive of The Post Office, Carl Cowling, group chief executive of WH Smith and WH Smith’s High Street Retail Director, Heidi Reynolds.
Within the meeting, Mr Sunak has said that both companies “recognised the importance of a service that could be relied upon” and has put a “robust” staffing plan to tackle the closure issues.
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This has included recruiting and training sufficient staff to maintain a consistent and reliable service with the doubling of the pool of staff available to staff the counters.
Self-service machines for the simpler transactions would also be introduced to speed up the service and reduce queues at peak times, according to the MP.
Speaking after the meeting with the Post Office and WH Smith said: “I am grateful the chief executives of the two organisations responsible for providing the service came to Northallerton to answer my questions.
“They agreed with me that the situation has been unacceptable and that my constituents and their customers deserve a better and more reliable service. I welcome the actions they have already taken and their plans to ensure a consistent service in the future.”
The MP said that it was vital that the Northallerton branch operated normally – with the extra Saturday afternoon and Sunday opening hours introduced after the branch’s move from its old premises in 2019.
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