Tendering for a counter service in Ballasalla goes against the Post Office’s strategic policy of consolidation, board papers show.

An executive summary looking at the closure of the village’s post office was released after a Freedom of Information request by the Examiner.

Recommendations made for the Post Office board to approve contrasted three potential ways forward for the struggling company.

The options were to tender for a self-service kiosk with parcel drop-off and parcel collection, a full counter service on a commission- only basis for three years or a counter based on a ’profit neutral’ basis.

The papers said that the ’counter-based services are attractive to Ballasalla residents seeking to retain the status quo and for Isle of Man Post Office from a commercial perspective, when compared with the forecast based on current Ballasalla remuneration’.

It added: ’However, tendering for option two or three, would be a fundamental shift away from the strategic policy of consolidation, with broader and potentially severe consequences, assuming the reduced remuneration was sufficiently attractive to attract interest.

’If this approach was adopted, it would constrain opportunities to reduce head office costs while sustaining even more marginally profitable/unprofitable services for retailers acting as sub post-masters, and potentially undermining agreements negotiated with the National Federation of Sub Postmasters and existing SPMs.’

The Post Office was left with a choice to make over Ballasalla’s postal services when Rob Knighton announced his decision to terminate his contract as he is moving to the UK.

In response, the Post Office decided not to advertise for a new sub postmaster but to replace the village’s counter service with a self-service machine.

Those who wanted, or needed, to continue using a counter service were pointed in the direction of the village’s bus stops and told to use Castletown’s post office.

As part of its consultation on the closure, the Post Office contacted several people and groups which it called ’key stakeholders’.

This included MHKs Jason Moorhouse and Graham Cregeen, the Department of Infrastructure, Treasury, Age Concern, Malew and Castletown Commissioners among others.

However, their responses have been redacted from the FoI response so we don’t know if they support or objected to the change.

Under the recommended option for a kiosk, residents would be able to ’access standard postal services and pay key utility bills including payments of social housing rent, electric, gas and rates by card and in cash from the kiosk with a parcel drop off facility provided’.

The Post Office also moved to dampen concerns that residents would be cut off from services, noting that in 20 years, a third of the counter network has closed and people have simply moved on to using others.