Save our Post Offices continued

The motion to Council was amended but in such a way that we could support the amendment. Separately in Parliament there was a debate and a vote to stop the closures and a number of Labour MPs voted in favour of that motion. Sadly 20 votes short but the closest to a government defeat on a motion of this nature.

Our local radio station asked me to give an interview and one of our local newspapers printed an item and a contact point and I received an email with an alternative view.

I replied and the correspondence follows (with some blanking to protect the identity of the individual concerned).


Dear XXXXXXXXXX,

First of all thanks for getting in touch.

You are perfectly entitled to your point of view but I suspect you already
know I don't share it in this case.

The thing is that the £4million that you talk of is as a result of the government under funding what is a critical public service for many. The actual per capita cost of this service equates to just under 7 pence per week or just over £33 pounds pa for a public point of contact that can be used for the provision of government services and could also be used as a public access point for council services.

This is a small sum to consider when compared with some of the other ways that our money is used. I do not begrudge the tax I pay being used for positive purposes and I see the public service provided by local post offices a price worth paying.

The government decided in May 2007 that to continue to receive funds the Post Office will close 2500 local post offices and if you research the progress so far you will see that this prescriptive approach has resulted in closures that have led to communities urban and rural being threatened. The 500 mobile access points (many of which are vehicles that appear for short periods of time) are a pathetic sticking plaster and the actual hours of opening typically two periods of two hours a week are little or no use to many.

Many of the post offices selected are admittedly marginal but not loss making and their withdrawal often dooms other aspects of service provided to the communities in which they are based. (please have a look at this link and look at some of the existing closure reviews carried out http://www.postoffice.co.uk/portal/po/content1?catId=57600693&mediaId=57600697)

With regard to service, I do not know if you use a local post office, they are typically set up on a more human scale than the Crown offices which you find in some Town and most City centres and the people that work in them often provide added levels of service to their communities.

With regard to accessibility, the elderly and vulnerable members of the community that you scorn who perhaps do not have your level of computer literacy or perhaps your level of health, ( I realise that as I believe we have not met I may be making possibly an equally unfair assumption about your age and health which you are quite at liberty to correct). once upon a time for some they may have been more nimble, able or adept at coping with change but we have a duty to support them whilst they are in need and perhaps less able to cope.

I agree that there are a number of options that people can use as alternatives but some of these are just not available to some of the members of the community that you criticise and will lead to real hardship for many, I would seek to try to find alternatives to help them but as a start wish to try to stop this now.

Where the Post Office consultation process is invoked and takes place a small number of reversals have resulted, where a post office is saved another from the area will close, the much vaunted consultation process that the Post Office offers seems to be an empty gesture and therefore as a first point we need to get the process frozen so that we can look at alternatives and that is the purpose of the petition that we are raising..

I believe that you have done some research on this situation but believe that you should do some more, there are at least 90 Labour MPs and Ministers who are fighting to keep their local post offices open and the number is growing as more closures are confirmed, I ask you to consider why are they opposing this?

In the last round of local closures there were a number of photo opportunities for our MP where she was pictured with groups of members of the public who were to be affected. In all she looks glum and talks of her determination to save them but it was her government that triggered the closures and in this case I predict she will will be pictured in the same circumstances again looking glum and saying the same things, you may wish to look at her voting record on this issue.
http://www.publicwhip.org.uk/index.php

Finally "Doom and Gloom Britain" well there are a number of positive initiatives rolling out across the UK but for many there are huge challenges that we face and our existing governments "tick box and spin mentality" linked to a tendency to average down and cut away levels of support rather proves the point for me.

I will continue to fight to protect the interests of people in our community regardless of their politics.

Should you wish to discuss this further I would be happy to hear from you.
But in any case I wish you well.

Regards

Geoff

Geoff Walsh


On 20/03/2008, XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX> wrote:
>
> Mr Walsh,
>
> I am writing in response to your letter and article published in this
> weeks Pontefract & Castleford Express.
>
> Firstly, let me express my appreciation of your concerns about closures
> hitting the elderly and vulnerable. However, I feel strongly that your
> concerns are representative more of your own agenda to emphasise the 'Doom
> and Gloom Britain' as seen by your party leader Mr Cameron.
>
> In your recent public statements you fail to appreciate the following
> valid points;
>
> - These Post Offices are losing £4 Million every week.
> - Why should tax payers subsidise a minority of people who refuse to
> open bank accounts and have their benefits paid into them?
> - The post office has confirmed that they will still provide mobile
> services in areas of Post Office closures.
> - Most of these Post Offices offer very little or poor service when
> compared to today's lifestyle.
> - Every service provided by the Post Office is available elsewhere.
>
> Of course you will get people signing your petitions. I suspect a vast
> majority will be Tory pensioners who won't open bank accounts to get their
> pension or who will have to walk another 2 minutes to buy a stamp.
>
> In reality, as the world moves on, you should take a realistic view of
> these outdated establishments that are losing millions every week instead of
> spreading your doom and gloom stories.
>
> Regards,

XXXXXXXXXXXXX