§ 2.53 p.m.
§ Lord Orr-EwingMy Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question standing in my name on the Order Paper.
§ The Question was as follows:
§ To ask Her Majesty's Government how they view the refusal of the Post Office to reinstate pre-1973 county names into postal addresses after the abolition of the metropolitan counties.
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Trade and Industry (Lord Lucas of Chilworth)My Lords, the question of postal addresses is very much an operational matter for the Post Office Board.
§ Lord Orr-EwingMy Lords, will my noble friend draw the attention of the Post Office to the fact that now that three-quarters or more of the post is automatically sorted, it cannot be impossible to reprogramme the computers and the sorting arrangements so that traditional county names can be used by those who wish to use them rather than names which do not mean much? There would seem to be no disadvantage in retaining the old county names, of which everyone is very proud and which have existed for many hundreds of years. Can this matter be drawn to the attention of the Post Office, because the consumers are not now as well represented by POUNC as they were in days of yore?
§ Lord Lucas of ChilworthMy Lords, of course my noble friend's point will be made to the chairman and the board of the Post Office, but the Post Office consulted widely across the metropolitan counties and with POUNC and there was no concrete and firm expresssion of a change being necessary.
§ Baroness Burton of CoventryMy Lords, the Minister will probably rule my question as not arising out of the Question on the Order Paper, but am I correct in thinking that the present range of new stamps issued to celebrate Energy Year commenced at 17p? If that is so, does he not think that it should start at 12p—at the bottom? Is it not mean to isolate a large sector of the community and will he take up the matter with the Post Office?
§ Lord Lucas of ChilworthMy Lords, the noble Baroness has indeed anticipated my response. I fear that stamps are a little too wide of the original Question.
Lord Bruce of DoningtonMy Lords, is the noble Lord aware that we think it is very wise of him to decline to intervene in this matter with the Post Office, since the Post Office is a rather more permanent institution than Her Majesty's present Government? Is he aware that following the next election the position of the metropolitan counties, to which the noble Lord, Lord Orr-Ewing, referred, may suffer some considerable alteration as a result of undoing the mess the Government have created?