|
Ladies and Gentlemen, I am delighted to have been invited and to be able
to attend this award ceremony today. I'm only sorry that I was not able
to join you for the lunch.
The reason was that I was answering a debate in the Commons about
some local post offices.
What that debate demonstrated - as debate after debate demonstrates
powerfully in the House of Commons - is how much people care about their
local Post Office. The Post Office has the most trusted name in British
retailing, and that's because of the work of the people in this field
and your colleagues up and down the country.
David is right to speak about the pride people take in their local
Post Office.
I am therefore particularly pleased to have this opportunity to join
you at this award ceremony, which positively celebrates excellence,
initiative, commitment to service and innovation.
And it is important to remember that the awards to be presented here
today are just the tip of the iceberg. Each of the seven winners has
progressed through regional assessments before being judged as overall
winner at national level. The judging panel faced difficult choices in
making their final decisions and I should also like to congratulate and
thank the subpostmasters, managers and staff of all those branches that
took part in the competition but did not quite make this year's final
selection.
Today's event is a welcome and timely restoration of a tradition, in
abeyance since 1999, of celebrating success and publicly acknowledging
excellent service and performance. The awards reflect the diversity of
the network: large branches and small branches, urban and rural and the
winners today come from across the country. What they all have in
common, though, is outstanding enthusiasm, dedication and commitment to
customer care and service which customers deeply appreciate.
These are the qualities perceived by your customers in their
day-to-day contacts and which they believe deserve wider recognition
beyond the community immediately served by your branches. Let me
underline just how committed the Government is to the future of Post
Office Network. I welcome what David has said about the future. Its
excellent news that David has been able to announce the joint venture
with Bank of Ireland to sell new financial services products through
post offices, building on the £1/2 billion the Government has invested
in technology for banking.
I hope it won't be long before everyone up and down the country will
pick up the new sense of optimism in Post Office Network, building on
the superb qualities shown by everyone in this Hall today. That's what
your customers can see this afternoon that recognition is being
celebrated very deservedly and very publicly in the presentations, which
are now about to be made.
|
