Royal Mail profits spark village anger

WESTCOUNTRY communities have reacted with "disgust" and frustration at the news Royal Mail has doubled its profits during a period in which Devon and Cornwall lost 150 post offices.

The nationalised mail business saw its operating profit reach £177 million in the six months to September, the company said. This is the most the Royal Mail has made in the first half of its financial year since at least 2001.

The figures come at a time of fears that 3,000 more post offices could close nationally if the Government does not extend the Royal Mail's Post Office Card Account (POCA) contract beyond 2010.

The closures would be in addition to the highly controversial programme which will see 2,500 out of 14,000 branches across the country shut for good by the spring, despite fierce opposition.

Communities in Devon and Cornwall affected by the programme of post office closures expressed their frustration yesterday at the news of Royal Mail's profits.

Bryan Green, of the Offwell Rural Services Association, said: "I'm not particularly surprised that Royal Mail has doubled its profits. Part of my own approach to Post Office Limited was I felt absolutely certain that we were making a profit."

Mr Green was among protesters who fought to keep the post office in the East Devon village of Offwell. The campaign was unsuccessful, although Mr Green maintained that use of the post office went up in the past four years.

He said the village now has a PostPoint mailbox service in place of its post office and must pay Royal Mail to collect letters and parcels.

He said: "There's a mixture of anger and despair in small communities. I think people are just disgusted at the whole business."

John Harding, who campaigned to save Tipton St John post office in East Devon, said: "I don't know what to say. It's extremely frustrating."

Dan Rogerson, Liberal Democrat MP for North Cornwall, said the news showed the sweeping post office closures were not necessary.

He said: "The Liberal Democrat party has said for a long time that a restructuring of the Royal Mail group could have prevented the closure of all those post offices. It's always been possible that, with the right steps, the group could have been restored to profitability."

Despite its strong turnaround – especially at its Post Office business – Royal Mail said it faced a dire future unless the Government radically overhauled the postal market.

The number of letters being delivered has fallen by five million a day and is expected to fall further as the economy enters a recession.

The average daily postbag has fallen to 79 million items, five million fewer than two years ago, the figures revealed.

Chief executive Adam Crozier said: "The increase in our profitability underlines the huge effort that has been made across the company to drive up quality of service, to cut our costs and to improve our current financial performance."

However, he added the company was still facing "huge pressures" and would need to "step up the pace of modernisation".