PAN QUEST FOR ELECTRICITY PAY POINT

Date: 29th August 2002
Released by: ANDREW TURNER
Member of Parliament for the Isle of Wight

Island MP Andrew Turner has backed Pan residents in their quest for an electricity pay and meter key recharging point to be kept on the estate.

Scottish and Southern Electricity (SSE) have removed the contract to receive electricity payments from Post Office Counters, Ltd, and put it in the hands of a private company, Paypoint. Unfortunately Paypoint’s nearest office is in Upper St James’s Street, Newport, almost a mile away from the point in Pan Post Office where local people are used to paying their bills and having their meter keys recharged. After meeting about thirty mothers and elderly people during his mobile surgery rounds earlier this month, he has written to the energy regulator OFGEM, the electricity company, PayPoint, and the Post Office demanding action.

Mr Turner said:

“These different bodies are all acting to suit themselves and forgetting that they’re meant to be providing a service for the residents of Pan.

“SSE look for the cheapest provider of the pay-point and meter-key service. Post Office Counters can’t afford to invest in the new meters which are now required, so they lost the contract to Paypoint. Paypoint’s nearest provider is in central Newport, and closed during the evening and most of Sunday, so young mums and elderly people have to walk a long way to recharge their meter keys – compared with Pan Post Office which was a short walk, an errand that older children could run unsupervised, and somewhere that neighbours might reasonably go on behalf of the elderly. Mums now have to get all their children together and take them into town, crossing two main roads, because Paypoint’s chosen outlet is closed in the evenings when their menfolk are at home. One even pointed out that it’s very costly taking young children past MacDonald’s! To make matters worse, Post Office Counters won’t allow Paypoint an outlet at Pan Post Office, despite the postmaster’s agreement, because it competes with their payment facility.

“This is a complete and utter muddle, perpetrated by two businesses over which the Government exercises close control. I asking the bodies concerned to sort themselves out, and I have asked OFGEM to make sure they do so.

“I am also conscious that other Post Offices have only a twelve-month reprieve before their meter key recharging points are taken away, and I am demanding that OFGEM insist that such a point be retained in every village with a shop, regardless of ownership. If they will not do so then, when Parliament reassembles, I will raise the matter with the appropriate Minister.”