The House of Commons Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, James Purnell, announced that the contract to run the post office card account (POCA) had been awarded to the Post Office. The POCA contract will run to 2015.
Lord Hanningfield, Leader of Essex County Council welcomed the announcement: “I am delighted the Government has listened to those of us who have been campaigning long and hard to safeguard the future of our post offices.
Losing the card account could have seen a further 3000 post offices close; something our communities would not accept. This announcement alone, however, will not secure our vital postal network. I have, therefore, urged the Government to go further and follow what Essex County Council has been doing to ensure our communities have access to postal services.
I have invited Business Secretary Lord Mandelson to visit our first reopened Post Office in Epping to see, first hand, how the Essex model could be applied across the country. I look forward to working with him to secure the future of the post office network and to welcoming him to Essex.”
EssexWorks: For a better quality of life
Media contact: Eleri Roberts
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