McArthur highlights importance of Universal Postal Service

Orkney MSP Liam McArthur used a debate in the Scottish Parliament on Thursday to highlight the importance of universal postal services to people and businesses in the islands.

Drawing attention to the effect of high delivery charges to the islands, Mr McArthur called for cross-party representations to be made to Ofcom supporting an urgent review of the impact unfair competition may be having on the viability of the universal postal service.

Mr McArthur said: “The universal service obligation is a cornerstone of our postal service and a particular benefit to individuals and businesses in rural areas, such as Orkney.  For it to be sustainable, however, Royal Mail needs to be able to use revenue from easier to serve, densely populated areas to cover the cost of a nationwide network.

“That is why cherry-picking of the more profitable routes by some private operators is a concern.  Whistl, formerly TNT, has grown rapidly over recent times and has plans to cover over 40 per cent of addresses by 2017, albeit in less than nine per cent of the geographic area of the UK.

“Ofcom appears to recognise the problem and has committed to review end-to-end postal competition by the end of next year.  Unfortunately, this may be too late, particularly if it finds that changes do need to be made to protect the universal postal service.

“People in Orkney already face paying higher costs for delivery of packages to the islands, thanks to the approach taken by some companies following the introduction of competition in that market.  In many cases, there can even be unwillingness to deliver to Orkney at all.

“The same cannot be allowed to happen in relation to the letters market and I welcome the Scottish government’s agreement to approach Ofcom on a cross-party basis to make the case for a more urgent review into this issue.”