A Teesdale postmistress says she is “scared for the future” and hopes the government will scrap their plans to remove vital services from the Post Office next year.
Currently post offices nationally handle over six million DVLA transactions annually contributing £3.2 million per year to their income, but from April 2024 everyone will be forced to renew their driving licences and pay vehicle tax online when the Driving and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) ends its contract with the Post Office.
It is a move Barnard Castle postmistress, Claire Jackson-Ward, is opposing, as are more than 1,500 dale residents who added their signatures to the petition by the National Federation of Sub Postmasters (NFSP) calling on the government to reverse the decision.
She said: “We don’t know if it’s going to have any effect on the government or the decision but we can try.
“DVLA say we are an antiquated service that is no longer required. They don’t know the rural areas though. We don’t have 5G like a lot of places and for some people it is just not possible to go online as they don’t have internet. There are some services you just can’t do online that we help customers with over the counter. It’s going to be a lot more difficult for them.”
Ms Jackson-Ward, who has been the town’s postmistress for the last 12 years, added she and her staff have been overwhelmed by the support of residents who have not hesitated to add their signatures to the petition.
She said: “Everyone we have asked apart from three or four have happily signed the petition.
“Joy Roxburgh put an appeal on Facebook and we have had people coming in simply to sign the petition. We also had copies in Galgate News and Riley’s Hairdressers.
“In total it’ll be about 1,500 signatures as well as the online one.”
The petition was sent off to the NFSP on Friday, who they hope will persuade the government to make a u-turn.
Ms Jackson-Ward added: “We lost fishing licensing in January this year. We lose the lottery in January next year and they are taking DVLA products off us in March.
“Nobody will be able to get anything from us. It is really scary. We lost our cash machine because they did a survey of use during Covid.”
She said: “There are 11,000 post offices in the network but not all of them do the DVLA products, however, if they all have the same kind of response from their communities, hopefully the government will listen.”
An independent review of the DVLA was launched by the government last month, but is not connected to the Post Office contract.
A spokesperson for DVLA said: “The Post Office currently provide a limited range of DVLA’s services and an extension to the current contract has recently been agreed until March 31, 2024.
“We want our customers to be able to access our services as quickly and as easily as possible and the role of front office counter services will form part of the considerations of any future service offerings.”
