North East chair of the Federation of Postmasters urges people not to boycott Post Offices
Many are concerned people will decide to use other couriers instead
A postmistress in our region is urging people NOT to boycott their local post offices in the wake of the Horizon IT scandal.
Hundreds were wrongfully convicted of false accounting, theft and fraud - thanks to a faulty system.
The Government is now looking at what more can be done to deliver timely compensation for victims.
Sue Edgar, postmistress of Guisborough Post Office, said: "There's been a lot of social media posts about maybe never using the Post Office again and using a private courier for my parcels etc, well that hits us. It impacts us, the postmasters of today. We're self-employed. We don't have a salary or a pension. We have to employ our people who work in the branches. We pay them, not Post Office Limited. We're paid a commission on everything that we sell whether that's a stamp or a parcel.
"We need you. We stayed open through Covid and everything. We've always supported our communities since the beginning and we'll continue to so. I'd love it if our communities support every Post Office in the land otherwise, the likes of the ones in the villages could go. We're already under pressure. We can't afford to lose our Post Offices on the high street anywhere.
"I don't want to make anybody redundant. I managed to keep them in post over Covid. I don't want to lose any of my staff. It's unfair because everybody has a mortage or rent to pay. Nobody's working for the fun of it. We all work because we need to but not just my staff, staff across the country in all Post Offices, we don't want anybody to lose a job over this.
"Our Horizon now is a different Horizon to what was around then. We have a different system which is more secure. I'm not saying it's perfect because you can never say that, but we just need the general public to support all Post Offices across the network. We're the postmasters of today and it's unfair for us to be penalised for the past errors of Post Office Limited, Fujitsu and the Government.
"We're independent. We're all business people. Please support us. We don't have a massive pension or bonuses, we don't get any of that. We're independent and we're asking you to support us."