Bohemia Village Voice

Mr Masood Iqbal - wants to open post office counter.

Mr Masood Iqbal has asked Bohemia Village Voice to support and publicise his application for a Post Office. He is keen to provide a post office counter in part of his new ‘Bohemia Foodmarket’ – to be opened later this year on the site of Lullabuys Pram Shop at 68/70 Bohemia Road. Mr Iqbal is prepared to spend the £20,000 necessary to install the necessary special security counter, screen and safe.
  Until a couple of years ago, there was a post office in Bohemia Road, which runs through the centre of our area. Since it closed, it has been sorely missed. Other local post offices are situated at quite some distance from Bohemia which involves great inconvenience for even the simplest of transactions. The closure of the post office has also meant a reduction of trade for other local stores. We have lost the heart of our community.
  There is now a chance that it could be re-opened as a counter inside a mini-supermarket. Local businessman, Mr Masood Iqbal, will be opening ‘Bohemia Foodmarket’ – a double-fronted, 1300 sq ft store – before the end of the year, and wishes to include within it a post office counter. A post office would be very warmly welcomed by the residents and traders of Bohemia.  
  But what are the realistic chances of success for Mr Iqbal’s application? Bohemia Village Voice spoke to the manager (Steve) of the ‘Human Resources’ division of Post Office Ltd for clarification. He said “The Post Office has recently closed about 3,000 branches all over the country as part of our ‘Network Reinvention’ plan. We know it isn’t popular with our customers, but we are not a charity and are trying to run our business at a profit. Last year we lost £120 million, which was a great improvement on the previous year. Anyone wanting to open a post office must apply to us to become a sub-postmaster.”
  What are the hurdles which anyone must overcome in order to become a sub-postmaster? “If you want to open a post office, you must apply to us. We will then look at the proposal, taking into account the distances from other local post offices, whether the catchment area is sufficiently large, whether any new housing development has taken place, and so on. You must put your proposal in writing and send it to our Leeds office. Within fourteen days you will be contacted and a site visit will be arranged with one of our local team.”
   Is it worthwhile opening a post office? “The postmasters receive a remuneration based on the ‘traffic’ (the number of transactions) which take place within his or her post office, for example, each telephone bill paid over the counter is worth about 7p to the postmaster. Against this you have to bear in mind that we’ve lost a lot of business recently: for example, we’ve lost the right to sell television licences and pension payments are now paid directly into people’s bank accounts. On the other hand, we now sell a lot of foreign currency in our branches.” What if someone just wants to sell stamps?
“If anyone just wants to sell stamps, that’s no problem – you can buy them at a discount from Royal Mail.”
“ In April 2004, Labour councillors Ron Rushbrook and Andrew Cartwright wrote to all local residents and traders urging them to contact the Post Office objecting to the proposed closure of Bohemia Place Post Office. This valiant attempt, backed also by MP Michael Foster, failed.
  Maybe Mr Iqbal will also fail, but if you wish to support him and make your voice heard, write as soon as possible, saying why you think Bohemia needs its post office, to:
David Southall,
Post Office Limited,
Upper Floors,
Market Branch Office,
6 to 16, New York Street,
Leeds, LS2 7DZ.