From correspondent Kate Wilcox:
Since Exmouth Post Office was franchised to W. H. Smith in 2019, there have been a number of occasions when the Post Office has been closed without notice. This happened again on Wednesday 15 May and staff shortages were cited as the reason. A number of elderly people had travelled into town to carry out business with the Post Office only to be told it would be open for the morning of May 16th. When local bus services are sporadic and unreliable, after making the effort to get into Exmouth town centre, it is frustrating and annoying to find that the Post Office is closed. Other local post offices are not within easy walking distance.
The franchising of Post Offices to WH Smith in 2016 was met with fierce opposition from the CWU and members of the public. The All Party Parliamentary Group expressed its concern that WH Smith’s marketing director Roger Gale was unable to outline the organisation’s contingency plan in the event of WH Smith collapsing. MP and APPG chair Gill Furniss told RN: “I was left disappointed by the answers from Post Office officials. Despite the Post Office’s protestation that there will be a consultation on the closures, it was revealed that in fact the decision to close the Crown Post Office is final and not up for consultation.”
I wrote to Sir Hugo Swire, the local Conservative MP in 2019 at the time when the franchising was established, to voice my opposition and concerns for the future of a post office in the town centre should WH Smith close down. These objections were brushed aside with no explanation of how the Post Office would deal with the eventuality.
There appears to be no enforceable regulation concerning the number of staff required to be available to run the post office or the hours of opening. The WH Smith staff have no control over the opening or closing of the post office but they get abuse from angry customers who have had wasted journeys.
Yet again, the Conservative Government has allowed a public service body to be privatised with no regulation to protect members of the public from poor or non- existent service should the owners fail to meet their obligations.
Yours sincerely,
Kate Wilcox
East Devon Watch 
What will Exmouth’s current party gopher Simon Jupp, (who even looks like one), or wannabe David Reed do about issues like this if elected? Very little, sit on their hands and wait for treats I imagine, just as happens with Jupp now. Or Labour’s own Dan Wilson for that matter. Dan still hasn’t told us why he left the party and whether it was a local or national issue. I believe it was due to a matter of personal rather than political concern, so I believe in the extraordinarily unlikely event of him being elected he would rapidly be following the party line. That’s how ambition works.
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