Chamber
Plenary, 06 Dec 2006
06 Dec 2006 · S2 · Plenary
Item of business
Rural Post Offices
I congratulate my colleague John Swinney on securing tonight's debate. On 22 September in Birnam, he and I sat at a packed meeting with sub-postmasters from across Perthshire and further afield, at which a number of these issues were discussed. I apologise to him and to other members, because I will need to leave the chamber early, as I have two other diary engagements to attend tonight.
As those of us who represent parts of rural Scotland know, there are already huge pressures on rural Scotland, where the rural post office is often at the heart of the community. Rural post offices are an invaluable way of disseminating public information and all local news—some might say that they are the best way of catching up with the local gossip—and they enable Government services to be delivered locally. They do that the length and breadth of the country.
Rural post offices become involved in some weird and wonderful combinations in order to survive. Some of them double up as tourist information centres—I have one of those in my constituency—but they are more usually combined with a general store. The footfall that is created by the need to access the post office's services can generate that little bit of extra business that makes the shop viable. If folk no longer visit the post office or have no post office that they can visit, they are less likely to use the shop and the shop becomes one more amenity that the community loses. It is not as if rural Scotland is so well served by public transport options that getting to the next available shop and post office is easy. If the post office closes, the community's heartbeat stops.
The Government should do everything possible to ensure that rural post offices continue to thrive, but instead it seems to be doing all that it can to pull the rug out from under their feet. As John Swinney's motion makes clear, the withdrawal of the DTI's rural post office subsidy in a year and a half's time means that there is a real danger that up to 1,000 post offices could be lost to rural Scotland. That means that 1,000 communities across the country will have the heart ripped out of them. The hardest hit in those communities will be the most vulnerable and those who depend on their local post office the most—old folk, people on benefits and families on low incomes.
The people who run our rural post offices are utterly disillusioned and very angry, and rightly so. They feel that the Government does not want anything to do with post offices. Although the Government has said that it supports them, its actions have had precisely the opposite effect. Every change that has been introduced has made it harder for people to use their post office and made it more difficult for the post office to make money. That depressing downward spiral must be stopped.
As those of us who represent parts of rural Scotland know, there are already huge pressures on rural Scotland, where the rural post office is often at the heart of the community. Rural post offices are an invaluable way of disseminating public information and all local news—some might say that they are the best way of catching up with the local gossip—and they enable Government services to be delivered locally. They do that the length and breadth of the country.
Rural post offices become involved in some weird and wonderful combinations in order to survive. Some of them double up as tourist information centres—I have one of those in my constituency—but they are more usually combined with a general store. The footfall that is created by the need to access the post office's services can generate that little bit of extra business that makes the shop viable. If folk no longer visit the post office or have no post office that they can visit, they are less likely to use the shop and the shop becomes one more amenity that the community loses. It is not as if rural Scotland is so well served by public transport options that getting to the next available shop and post office is easy. If the post office closes, the community's heartbeat stops.
The Government should do everything possible to ensure that rural post offices continue to thrive, but instead it seems to be doing all that it can to pull the rug out from under their feet. As John Swinney's motion makes clear, the withdrawal of the DTI's rural post office subsidy in a year and a half's time means that there is a real danger that up to 1,000 post offices could be lost to rural Scotland. That means that 1,000 communities across the country will have the heart ripped out of them. The hardest hit in those communities will be the most vulnerable and those who depend on their local post office the most—old folk, people on benefits and families on low incomes.
The people who run our rural post offices are utterly disillusioned and very angry, and rightly so. They feel that the Government does not want anything to do with post offices. Although the Government has said that it supports them, its actions have had precisely the opposite effect. Every change that has been introduced has made it harder for people to use their post office and made it more difficult for the post office to make money. That depressing downward spiral must be stopped.
In the same item of business
The Deputy Presiding Officer (Murray Tosh):
Con
The final item of business is a members' business debate on motion S2M-4876, in the name of John Swinney, on a threat to the rural post office network in Sco...
Motion debated,
That the Parliament notes the public concern over the future of the rural post office network in Perthshire, Angus and other parts of rural Scotland; notes t...
Mr John Swinney (North Tayside) (SNP):
SNP
I thank the many members who signed my motion and the Parliamentary Bureau for facilitating an important debate about the future of services in rural Scotlan...
John Swinburne (Central Scotland) (SSCUP):
SSCUP
Does the member agree that it is not only rural post offices that are at risk, but the whole network of post offices across the country, which is under inten...
Mr Swinney:
SNP
Mr Swinburne makes a fair point. I will say something about the business viability of post offices being jeopardised.Due to the limitations of transport in r...
The Deputy Presiding Officer:
Con
There is a very long list of members who wish to speak in the debate. I will discuss with the minister whether we might have a brief extension. However, ther...
Nora Radcliffe (Gordon) (LD):
LD
I congratulate John Swinney on instigating this timely debate. At a presentation on 30 November, Tom Begg, the chairman of Postwatch Scotland, said that rura...
Tricia Marwick (Mid Scotland and Fife) (SNP):
SNP
Will the member give way?
The Deputy Presiding Officer:
Con
The member is almost at the end of her time.
Nora Radcliffe:
LD
The report continues:"If the country wants a comprehensive network of Post Offices to continue, a more explicit funding mechanism must be put in place, toget...
The Deputy Presiding Officer:
Con
Can you wind up please?
Nora Radcliffe:
LD
There are many things that could and should be done to maintain a unique network that is a valuable asset. If we do not use it, we will lose it and, if we lo...
Roseanna Cunningham (Perth) (SNP):
SNP
I congratulate my colleague John Swinney on securing tonight's debate. On 22 September in Birnam, he and I sat at a packed meeting with sub-postmasters from ...
Murdo Fraser (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Con):
Con
I congratulate John Swinney on securing a debate on what is an important matter for the whole of rural Scotland.I appreciate that support for sub-post office...
Cathy Peattie (Falkirk East) (Lab):
Lab
I thank John Swinney for bringing this important debate to the Parliament this evening.Post office closures have a significant knock-on impact on local commu...
Mr Andrew Arbuckle (Mid Scotland and Fife) (LD):
LD
I thank John Swinney for securing this debate. It is significant that a large number of MSPs from across the political divide are attending and want to speak...
Rob Gibson (Highlands and Islands) (SNP):
SNP
I thank John Swinney for securing the debate.It is clear to me that we need to have joined-up thinking in our own back yard before we make a case for it to L...
Mr Mark Ruskell (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Green):
Green
I thank John Swinney—the man who has had more members' business debates than the entire Scottish Green Party in the second session of the Parliament—for secu...
Richard Lochhead (Moray) (SNP):
SNP
My last members' business debate earlier in the year was on the subject of the future of Post Office card accounts and the future of our post office network,...
Mr Jamie Stone (Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross) (LD):
LD
I offer John Swinney my warmest congratulations on securing the debate. I am sure that it will worry him that I agree with every word he said.If we were to c...
Mr Jamie McGrigor (Highlands and Islands) (Con):
Con
I congratulate John Swinney on securing the debate and, like Jamie Stone, agree with every word that he said. As another MSP for the Highlands and Islands, I...
The Deputy Presiding Officer:
Con
Before I call the next speaker, I am minded to accept a motion without notice to extend the debate by 10 minutes.
Motion moved,
That, under Rule 8.14.3, the debate be extended until 6.04 pm.—Mr John Swinney.
Motion agreed to.
Alasdair Morgan (South of Scotland) (SNP):
SNP
I congratulate John Swinney on securing this debate, but the problem with debates on post offices is that we have to revisit the issue so often. If, as Jamie...
Euan Robson (Roxburgh and Berwickshire) (LD):
LD
I, too, congratulate John Swinney on securing this debate.The pre-1997 UK Government had the unhappy record of overseeing the closure of 3,500 local post off...
Stewart Stevenson (Banff and Buchan) (SNP):
SNP
Rural communities are at the heart of the debate. I have the privilege of representing one of the three parliamentary constituencies in Aberdeenshire, where ...
The Deputy Minister for Environment and Rural Development (Rhona Brankin):
Lab
I, too, am pleased that John Swinney has given us the opportunity to discuss further the important subject of rural postal services. I have rural postal serv...