After Rye Town Councillors raised some concerns about the proposal to move the Post Office inside the adjacent Jempson’s supermarket, the Post Office’s headquarters and Stephen Jempson have both been in touch with the council.
One of the councillors’ concerns was about Post Office customers being able to park for free when using the public service. The Post Office said: “In regards to parking, pay and display parking would be (and has been) introduced at the proposed premises.
“Although there would be no free parking , parking for the first hour would cost £1 and a refund for the first hour parking fee would be available if customers spend £5 on retail goods at the store”
Mr Jempson told the council : “I am a little perplexed by this, as this was all agreed three years ago. Nothing has changed !”
[Editor’s note: The council has though as a new council was elected last year with a large number of new members]
Mr Jempson went to say : “The only reason it has been publicised again is because the time window we had to do the works has expired. The plans, new opening hours (6am-10pm) and siting of the Post Office in the store etc are exactly the same as they were previously!”
But, he then went to say : ” The one factor that has changed from Jempsons point of view is the introduction of a Pay and Display System from 9am-4pm in our car park. This £1 charge is refundable on a £5 spend in the store”.
To which Cllr Michael Boyd replied : “So if a Post Office customer only wants a couple of stamps or some advice, they have to pay the £1 parking charge ?” and Cllr Andy Stuart added : “Or collect their pension or send a package to a daughter or son in Australia !”.
Cllr Boyd then went to say : “My point obviously being that a couple of stamps or some advice doesn’t constitute a “£5 spend in store” and the £1 parking fee is not then reclaimable”.
The same issue has cropped up on Rye News’ Opinion page and Editor Charles Harkness observed “it should be possible for them (the Post Office) to issue a receipt which can be used in the supermarket to reclaim the parking charge”.
Jempson replied, saying “the franchisee simply can not amend or adapt any part of the (Post Office) software” which was not what Harkness asked for, and in the last week the Editor has twice visited the Post Office, twice requested a receipt, and twice received one which included the day, date and (most importantly for parking purposes) time.
A Post Office receipt could therefore have been provided along with the parking ticket to get a refund without having to purchase unwanted groceries. But “Jempson appears to be imposing a private tax on a public service”, said Mr Harkness, who is also a town councillor.
However the Post Office headquarters also said : “In addition (to the main Post Office inside Jempsons store) a Post Office service point will be situated alongside the retail till of the store. This combined retail and Post Office till will remain open whilst the hours the store is open, Monday to Saturday 06:00 – 22:00 and customers would be able to carry out transactions which typically account for a majority of customer visits across our network”.
The Post Office did not specify what the majority services include, and what services are excluded, but this will mean, if you need to park (including the disabled) and wish to avoid paying the “Jempson tax” on a public service, that you can only use the Post Office before 9am or after 4pm.
Photo: Rye News library