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Post Office Counters Lid
Mr C Baker
General Secretary nee
National Federation of Sub Postmasters
Evelyn House
22 Windlesham Gardens
SHOREHAM BY SEA
Sussex our ref: cb2109
BN4 5AZ 21 September 2000
Dear Colin
Thank you for your letter of 15 September about Horizon installation activity during
December. Whilst I can fully appreciate the sensitivity of this issue I was surprised by
the tone given the discussions we have had in recent weeks.
This said, I am happy that in our discussions yesterday we were able to agree a way
forward on all the cases you raised. For the record, I have agreed to the deferral of
Warton, Lighthouse, Muirhead Avenue East, Birkdale and Leece Street (done since our
meeting). You agreed to come back to me with more substantial evidence on Bargarron,
Magdalene Drive and Upper Brook Street.
As you acknowledged, we will need to finalise our position on these cases by Friday, 29
September, since beyond that date we will be into the training notification cycle and
cannot entertain any more pre-arranged deferrals.
On the other issues you raised:
1 Mike Granville has apologised for the delay in writing to you about the extension.
of the user training distance limit. Both he and Steve Gibbs, on the out of hours trading
policy, will be writing to you this week.
2 Endcliffe Park SPSO - A copy of the response sent to the subpostmaster is
attached as requested.
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21 September 2000
Mr C Baker
3 CSR+ - The current position is that we now have 230 offices operating on the
upgraded version of the Horizon software including 19 which are new installations
migrated directly to CSR+. The software problems which have prevented us committing
the upgrade of some individual counter terminals have hopefully now been resolved
and we propose to upgrade the residual 71 offices within the pilot tonight. Following
this we will review the situation to determine the way forward on the next offices to be
upgraded to CSR+. The present proposal is that we upgrade another 120 on Monday, 9
October, followed by 240 on each of the nights of 12 and 13 October. There will then be
a break of one week whilst we review progress before we commit another 1,500 during
the week commencing 23 October. The remaining CSR+ offices will hopefully be
upgraded during November but we will not be encroaching into December.
4 Field Gate, Warwick - Initially the subpostmaster had refused to permit agreed
modifications to take place in the office in June but subsequently agreed to go ahead
after RNM intervention. Since then his resignation has been tendered but the only
applicant was unsuccessful. The office is now suspended from the Horizon programme
but it would appear that it is an outstanding resignation rather than a three months
notice situation.
5 User Groups - I am awaiting details of the arrangements from Business Service
Management and will provide as part of my update report to you shortly.
One thing I forgot to mention yesterday is that we are scaling down User Awareness
Events from next month and redirecting these resources into user training. By then we
will have been once across the country and we are already seeing attendance at these
events tail off quite significantly. We will continue to run a maximum of one event a
week in each of the four installation areas. As you know these events are not mandatory
and with the wider geographical spread we expect to have between offices in the later
stages of the programme we are not expecting people to travel greater distances. All
outlets will continue to receive a full information pack.
Yours sincerely
Don Grey
Horizon National Roll Out Project Manager
Telephone numbe:
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GRO -
18 September 2000
Dear Mr Ryalls,
Thank you for your recent Iclter regarding the new Iorizon remittance procedures.
1am sorry that you fee) aggrieved by the proposals in tho letier but ] can assure you
that the next Horizon software release (known as CSR-+) is absolutely fundamental to
the successful automation of the Post Office Network
These proposals will allow us links in to the Logistics Feeder Service and in order that
you can fully understand your role in this development you are asked to complete the
workbooks. These workbooks will not only help your understanding of the process but
also ensure you can complete areas such as the cash declarations effectively and
efficiently and cnable you to get the optimum performance from the equipment. '
On this occasion you are asked to give two hours of your time to compfete these
activities and this time can be done all at once or in segments whichever is best 10 suit
your personal circumstances. [lowever it remains a mandatory requirement that you
complete the Freepost addressed response card to confirm the training has been
completed. 1 regret that I cannot agree to any outlet closing in order to complete this
exercise, However there is an option for you to add your views on the response card
and any comments received will be used to shape our approach to further training,
Finally, 1 cannot agree to you closing your outlet ta complete this exercise.
Yours sincerely
GRO
KH Parkin
Horizon Liaison Managet
20/08 '00 13:03 TX/RX NO. 4098 P02
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Mr K Davis Post Office Counters Led
National Federation of SubPostmasters
Evelyn House
22 Windlesham Gardens
SHOREHAM-BY-SEA your ref: KD/LTH/PC NW 06 OF
Sussex our ref: NESP8Sept
BN43 5AZ 8 September 2000
Dear Maude
Thank you for your recent letters enclosing correspondence from the subpostmasters of
Muirhead Avenue East, Liverpool, Upper Brook Street, Manchester and Leece Street,
Liverpool.
As you may recall, the issue of undertaking installation activity in the weeks
commencing 27 November and 4 December was the subject of considerable discussion
between Colin Baker and myself last month. The outcome of this was an agreement
which included a clause that any deferrals from planned installation activity in either of
these two weeks had to be concluded by Friday, 25 August. Lam sorry that we cannot
make an exception for any of these offices and we will have to manage the issues
concerned as best we can.
In the case of Upper Brook Street the subpostmaster was contacted in the week
commencing 10 July by my team and was given a six week training and installation
window between 30 October and 8 December. He signalled his acceptance of these
dates and we have confirmed this to ICL Pathway. It is only in later weeks when he
reccived further communication that this has been raised as an issue.
[am sorry if this seems somewhat callous but our contract with ICL Pathway is such
that each subpostmaster is given specific dates for training and implementation and will
only be allowed to refuse these in exceptional circumstances. None of the reasons
provided fall within the definition of exceptional circumstances which was only reached
after long and difficult negotiations.
Yours sincerely
GRO.
Don Grey
Horizon National Roll-out Project Manager
Post Office Coumers Led
North East
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