POST OFFICE FACILITIES, CARDIFF (Hansard, 7 March 1951)

§ Mr. George Thomas (Cardiff, West)
If it were not that I have a subject of much concern to-my constituents I would certainly not detain the House. I am concerned with a large modern housing estate which was begun in the district of Ely after the first world war and which has been considerably enlarged since 1945. Whole estates have been added until we have probably the largest housing estate in the whole of Wales in the Ely district of Cardiff. Unfortunately, with the growth of the housing estates there has not been a coincident and equal development in the facilities necessary for the inhabitants of the area, and it is that reason which prompts me to draw the attention of the Assistant Postmaster-General to the question of the lack of postal facilities on an adequate scale in Ely.
May I add that the people there are not those who complain willingly? They are warm-hearted, with a keen sense of communal responsibility, but they are not the sort to suffer in silence when their suffering can be avoided. Their complaint about the lack of postal facilities was thoroughly justified and overdue. I am sure my hon. Friend will not disagree on this point, for a public petition has been organised and quite spontaneously a large number of names was collected and I, in due course, submitted the petition to the Postmaster-General. I added my own representations as strongly as I could.
The Postmaster-General has now supplied us with new quarters, 91, Wilson Road, Ely. May I pay a tribute to my right hon. Friend and my hon. Friend for the readiness with which they have cooperated on this question of a sub-post office. They were quite willing to act upon the request of my constituents, and in January of this year, although I first raised the matter two years ago this month, my right hon. Friend sent me a letter in which he held out the hope that at some time we shall have a Crown Office at Wilson Road, but present restrictions hold us back.
My constituents are faced with a new difficulty owing to the site of this new 626 post office. It is on a very steep hill and my hon. Friend will appreciate that, since almost the whole of Ely is on a hill, it can be bleak at this time of year. Conditions can be severe for our old folk and for our pensioners, who have to climb that hill every time they go for their pensions. We have no complaint whatever against the facilities offered in the new sub-post office. They are a great improvement on what was available before when the sub-post office was in a little multiple shop, and a long queue of people waiting to be served in the post office would get mixed up and intertwined with a queue of people waiting to be served at the grocery shop. Sometimes it was embarrassing both for the customers and for the staff of the post office and grocer's shop.
I have given a great deal of thought to possible solutions of this problem and I have reached certain conclusions which I earnestly trust will be of some use to my hon. Friend the Assistant Postmaster-General when he replies to the debate and in giving consideration afterwards to what has been said. The basic fact is that the Caerau Estate and the Sweldon Estate in Cardiff need sub-post office facilities of their own. From the now substantial area of Caerau my constituents have to cross the main Cardiff—Swansea road before they can get to the post office and this is one of the busiest roads in Great Britain. In the summer months cars pass at the rate of 1,000 to 1,500 an hour. It is also the main road to Porthcawl and to the seaside, and is a road with considerable dangers.
The overwhelming majority of tenants in Caerau are eligible to draw family allowances, so they almost all have to make this regular trip to the sub-post office, which has been put further away than ever from Caerau Estate. Whatever else is done, I feel that the Post Office ought to see there is some special facility made available for the people there. There are quite suitable premises available on the estate for a new sub-post office to be established there. This would ease our problem considerably.
The second proposal I have to make is that the Sweldon Estate might be served by a new sub-post office at the top of Grand Avenue next to the cemetery. The cemetery is at the top of the estate and it would be very convenient if we 627 could have a sub-post office there. This new sub-post office would serve to relieve the severe congestion that is bound to take place again in the new sub-post office provided. Perhaps in his reply my hon. Friend would be good enough to indicate what is the average turnover in the sub-post office at Ely, which caters for an area in which there are 14,000 electors apart from the number of younger people not on the register. To provide a new sub-post office at the top of Grand Avenue for the Sweldon Estate and one for the Caerau Estate should not prove too difficult a proposition, and it would be a boon to my constituents in Ely who now will have to walk nearly a mile to the new sub-post office.
My third and last proposal is that, since there is a plot of land available near the original site of the sub-post office, a temporary post office might be erected. We do not want to be awkward in this matter, and if need be a Nissen hut could be provided and would serve the purpose until it was possible to build a permanent structure. It may seem that the problem I have raised tonight is not a big one. It may not be an important one in the eyes of many people, but it is one of considerable concern to my constituents who live in the area, or I would not have gone to the length of raising it in the House. When my hon. Friend replies. I trust he will indicate that consideration will be given to the proposals I have submitted and that some effort will be made to improve the facilities now available.

§ The Assistant Postmaster-General (Mr. Hobson)
We have had a very interesting statement regarding the provision of a sub-post office in the Ely district of Cardiff. I think that my hon. Friend has stated the case very fairly. If I may say so, having known my hon. Friend for a number of years I had a feeling that his speech might be a little more adjectival. However, he did seem convinced that my right hon. Friend has given attention to this problem. This matter was first raised on 16th February, 1949, in regard to the lack of adequate space at the sub-post office at 27, Wilson Road. I am bound to say that the Head Postmaster at Cardiff had not received a single complaint regarding the service, whether it was expeditious, or whether there was 628 delay. In point of fact, this sub-post office compared favourably with the other sub-post offices throughout Wales and the country generally.
Now we come to the point at which, on 9th November, 1950—that is 18 months afterwards—despite the fact that there had been no complaint, a petition was presented through my hon. Friend the Member for Cardiff, West (Mr. G. Thomas) to my right hon. Friend, complaining that the premises were not adequate and that there were long queues. We gave consideration to this petition. I must say that presentation of the petition did lead us into very serious immediate difficulties, because the sub-postmaster at 27, Wilson Road immediately tendered his resignation.
We were faced with the prospect of having to close the office, and so depriving the residents of that part of Cardiff of the sub-post office service which they had enjoyed, I believe, since 1929. However, we were able to get over that problem, and we took steps to see whether we could get someone to take the agency. We were successful and avoided closing the office by obtaining premises at 91, Wilson Road. The original sub-post office was at 27, Wilson Road, and the second office at 91. These premises are on the same side of the road. As the numbers of the premises in this road go in twos, I think it will be appreciated that there is not a considerable distance for people to travel from the extreme point of the area concerned.

§ Mr. G. Thomas
I know the area.

§ Mr. Hobson
I have had plans and maps of the area, and have studied the contours. I appreciate what my hon. Friend has said. I am happy to say that, as a result of consideration which we have given to this problem, we are prepared to establish a new sub-post office in a suitable position on the housing estate south of the Cowbridge Road, provided that we can get a suitable candidate for the office. I do not want to try to pronounce the Welsh names. I am a Yorkshireman, and I may fail if I endeavour to do so. But I think this new sub-post office will be in the area to which my hon. Friend referred. That is what we propose to do.
I have been asked what was the remuneration of that scale-payment office. 629 I am prepared to give the figure. It was £1,047. Normally it is our practice where a scale-payment office remuneration is more than £800, to consider establishing a Crown office, provided also that there is a minimum of 22½ hours work daily at the office. As a result of the war, and because of the limitation of capital investment, we cannot carry out the programme we should have liked to carry out. The Post Office is limited in capital investment like other industrial undertakings, and we allocate most of our capital investment to the telephone, and not the postal side. Therefore, I cannot hold out hope that, within a reasonable time, a Crown office will be established; but the sub-office will meet the immediate needs of the district, if we can get the right applicant.
The Post Office, we fully realise, is part and parcel of every person's life, especially in view of the vast amount of agency work which we carry out on behalf of other Government Departments. Furthermore, let me say that there is far more important work in Cardiff which needs doing than the building of a Crown office in this area. There is the extension of two branch offices, and there are at least eight scale-payment offices with greater remuneration than £1,047 which would have greater priority. We do not favour the establishment of a temporary 630 Crown office or of a temporary building for a sub-office. In any case, there would be a difficulty of building, and it would be far better that we should try to get someone to take on this agency.
I am grateful to my hon. Friend for having raised this question. It is the duty of every hon. Member to do so, if he gets complaints from constituents who are being affected by the activities of this oldest of the nationalised industries—and a very successful nationalised industry. Let me also say that this is evidence of the fact that. under nationalisation, the people can get the facts, and they can criticise; a thing which they could not do if it was a question of multiple shops. Let us not forget that.
I hope that the assurance which I have given my hon. Friend, that we are fully alive to the problems and are sympathetic to them, and also contemplate taking action, will make him feel that a useful purpose has been served. That applies to the petitioners as well. We want to deal with the expanding population in that area so that the people can enjoy the traditionally high and good service which the Post Office gives to the people of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.