It is reported that Andy Burnham made a fleeting visit to Devon yesterday. He chose the comfortable government agency Met Office in Exeter which Tony Blair relocated from Bracknell in 2003.

Exmouth, just 11 miles away, would have been a more typical place to discuss the problems of rural living where a population of 36,000 will lose their Post Office on September 28th.

From a correspondent:

Dear East Devon Watch

The impending closure of Exmouth town centre Post Office raises some important issues for our local MP and the government to consider.  The High Street is in decline and this is in no small part due to the closure of banks  and  Crown  Post Offices which support the local community.  The impending closure of the Post Office in Exmouth is a disaster for the town centre which has lost five banks over the last eight years.   The Post Office was cited as a viable alternative banking service when Santander closed its doors in 2025.

These services that the Post Office delivers via its network are services of public and economic interest (SPEI). They include:

• access to postal services
• universal access to basic cash and banking facilities
• universal payment facilities for public utility services
• provision of services on behalf of central and local government

The government requires the Post Office (POL) to deliver these SPEI across specific access criteria. This includes maintaining a network of at least 11,500 branches, and ensuring that 99% of the UK population to be within 3 miles of their nearest post office outlet. This is a larger network than the commercial optimum for the company.

Due to this, the government has been providing POL with a subsidy to support the post office network and the delivery of these SPEI since POL was established as a result of the Postal Services Act 2011. The Department for Business and Trade, the sole shareholder of Post Office Ltd.  is proposing to award POL a grant of up £180 million to support the continued delivery of the SPEI across the UK, over 3 financial years: 2026 to 2027, 2027 to 2028 and 2028 to 2029. This subsidy has been awarded to allow POL to continue to meet the operational costs of delivering government policy.

The impending closure of the Post Office  in Exmouth Town Centre which serves a population of 36,000 will have a serious negative impact on the wellbeing of the community and the town centre businesses.  The outlying post offices are not easy to reach by bus for residents who don’t live close to them.  The central post office by contrast provides an more accessible service to all residents.

The decline and fall of the Exmouth Post Office goes back to its change in status to a limited company in 2011 when the Department of Business and Trade supported a more commercial approach to its operations with many crown post offices closing and being franchised to private retail outlets.

In 2019, the  Exmouth Town Centre Post Office was franchised to WH Smith despite many objections raised by local residents including myself. I wrote to the then local multi millionaire MP Hugo Swire who was dismissive of my concerns that WH Smith could close down and the post office service with it as it was not a thriving enterprise on the High Street and was diverting its resources to travel hubs and away from High Street operations.  I don’t suppose he has to spend much of his time queueing at Post Offices to conduct his business.

Despite objections from many residents to this franchising of services to a private organisation, the Post Office went ahead and transferred Post Office operations to WH Smith. Unsurprisingly, most of the Post Office staff resigned rather than transferring to WH Smith’s payroll.

When TG Jones took over from WH Smith, the future of the Post Office was even more precarious.  TG Jones is owned by Modella Capital, a private equity firm which buys up failing businesses and either rationalises operations or closes the company completely, sometimes making a nice profit from selling off the merchandise from the shops they have taken over.

The Post Office has betrayed the customers who rely on a local post office to provide a range of services both to residents and local businesses alike.  When the banks were closing in Exmouth – we have lost five banks in the last eight years – the Post Office was cited as an alternative for residents to use.  Exmouth Post Office is always busy; It is not convenient or easy to reach the sub post offices on the outskirts of Exmouth for residents who don’t live in close proximity to them. There are many businesses and residents  including elderly and disabled, who rely heavily on a town centre service.

The Post Office should be providing a stand alone service instead of trying to shoe horn the post office into another high street store. Since WH Smith took over, the service has been patchy  with unannounced closures and shorter opening hours when staff have been diverted to working in the store instead of on Post Office Work.  A dedicated post office building with  reliable opening hours is essential for the town’s residents and businesses. There are empty properties on the High Street which could be used. 

The status of the Post Office from public service to a Limited company has been a disaster for the people of Exmouth and for many other communities throughout the country.  However, given that it is still under government control and receives handsome subsidies from the Government to operate, it should focus on serving the communities who rely on face to face Post Office Services.

Katherine Wilcox