This morning, Laura Tarling the post offices External Affairs Manager, South of England & Wales sent me an email apologising for the short notice closures and intermittent services at Tower Street post office. Staffing and recruitment problems lie at the heart of the problems.
The post office has ended digital passport and driving licence renewal transactions because of “poor wireless connectivity”. I am puzzled by this explanation as gigabyte internet connectivity is available across Ludlow, though it does require investment in a connection. Passport renewals can be completed on paper at Tower Street. Driving licence renewals are no longer available.
The post office says the proposed changes to store layout will help with staffing. But there is no indication it will help with the range of services.
This is an honest but very disappointing statement from the post office. If the full range of services are not provided in Ludlow, use of the post office will diminish and we could lose this vital amenity.
The full Post Office statement
We apologise to our customers who have experienced inconsistent post office services at the Ludlow branch, this has been due to staffing and recruitment problems. Please be assured that Post Office and the One Stop management team are fully aware that post office services have been disrupted at Ludlow and we continue to seek to resolve the issues at the branch.
We are also aware of some current issues with regards to transacting digital passport and driving licence renewal transactions at the branch. These transactions can operate wirelessly using a tablet, but due to poor wireless connectivity in this location we have taken the decision with One Stop to cease the digital service as it has been intermittent. Transaction volumes at the branch were also very low. Customers can still renew their passports using the paper based check and send service at the branch counter, but unfortunately driving licence renewals are no longer available from the branch. Customers can access this service online or at another post office providing the service. We again sincerely apologise to our customers for the inconvenience caused by this issue.
As previously explained, One Stop have plans to improve services for customers in Ludlow and will be relocating the post office counter within the store this summer. The changes to the layout will create an opportunity for more flexible staff working and improved opening times.
Once again, we sincerely apologise for the ongoing inconvenience caused to our customers in Ludlow. We will be working closely with One Stop over the coming months to plan and deliver the branch changes. The full details, including number of counters and opening times, will be shared with our customers once they are finalised, this is likely to be nearer to the time when the store layout changes take place.
I wonder whether the “poor wireless connectivity” is provided (or not) by the former SWS Broadband, now a minor bit-player of Voneus. Towards the hand-over to Voneus I began to get frequent drop-outs and they have got more and more frequent in recent weeks. Voneus now welcome calls with the standard “we are experiencing heavy demand …and you will have to wait for 30 minutes” message, so I emailed them as advised; and after 11 days without an acknowledgement am still waiting. Many others of my neighours have had the same experience, although I fail to see why in Ludlow the Post Office are using wireless when they could use fibre optics. Not that I now anything about how all this stuff works…
The Post Office is clearly not fit for purpose and should be dismantled immediately. The services shod be tendered to a modern tech based company with a proven record of delivering service.