169 Post Offices across London are facing closure under the latest cuts programme, including Chiswick High Road, South Street in Isleworth and Whitton Road in Hounslow South.
The consultation closes on the 2nd April, but the final announcement will not be made until June – conveniently after the elections for London’s Mayor and Assembly.
Across the country over 4,000 Post Offices have closed with a further 2,500 due to close by 2009. Following the last Labour cuts programme, the number of Post Offices in London was slashed to just 849 in September 2007, from 1,225 Post Offices in 2001. Labour holds the record for closing Post Offices faster than any other Government – almost 10 a week since they came to power.
Our local Post Offices provide a valuable service to the local community, particularly to the elderly who most rely on them. I will therefore fight the closure of our Post Offices which are under threat. I plan to:
- Give Sub-Post Offices more freedom to offer a wider range of business services
- Push for more Post Offices to be ‘One Stop Shops’
- Allow the Post Office to work with carriers other than the Royal Mail
- Find other outlets for current Post Offices where it may be more cost effective
Do please sign the petitions that are available at all three locations in the Constituency, if you think they should stay open.
Photo: Cllr Brad Fisher, local resident Lucia Frangiamore of Whitton Road and Mary
2 comments:
I believe there is some hope: the Tories are tabling an early-day motion that would suspend the closures...for now. The debate for this motion is TODAY, March 19th. I'm eager for an update!
Many Labour and Lib Dems attack us on this issue. It is true that we closed down 3000 post offices in our years in power, but that is still considerably less than Labour.
The real issue is how to make the post offices more appealing for people who are not its typically older users. A lot of people have been pressing for post offices to bring back some of its old amenities, like tv licenses, as well as introduce some new services. It is obvious that because there is no longer a monopoly on these services, the post offices will have to compete realistically and adopt a far more private-minded, customer-oriented business pitch.
Cheers,
Allan
Unfortunately the motion was just lost by 268 to 288 votes in the House of Commons. We need to keep fighting though!
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