Give us back our post office
by Hammersmith and Fulham Press Office
21/10/2008
Nine months on and there is still no sign of Olympia residents getting the post office they deserve after their one remaining branch was closed ‘temporarily’.
Hammersmith & Fulham Council is urging Post Office chiefs to find a home for the forgotten branch of W14 after the counter inside Costcutter on Hammersmith Road shut in February.
The Post Office originally told customers it was a ‘temporary closure’ but boarded up windows and a ‘to let’ sign outside the building suggest otherwise. W14 became the first postcode in London not to have a branch since postcodes were introduced in 1857.
Councillor Paul Bristow, cabinet member for residents’ services, said: "It is simply incredible that a temporary closure can last such a long time and Post Office Ltd still cannot tell us when or if a new branch will open again.
"We have been asking the Post Office to give our residents back their branch since day one, even suggesting that we house a counter at Baron’s Court Library, but nothing seems to have worked."
With no nearby branch, local people are being forced out of the W14 postcode to Hammersmith and Shepherds Bush, where the queues are among the top five worst in London.
Cllr Bristow added: "We are exasperated at the time it is taking to re-open a sub post office, especially as the Olympia branch was never targeted for closure in the first place. It has placed an intolerable burden on post offices in neighbouring areas, particularly Shepherds Bush in W12, where the queues are now horrendous."
At the end of last month Postal watchdog Postwatch Greater London – which has now merged with consumer watchdogs Energywatch and the National Consumer Council – launched a scathing attack on the Post Office, claiming that waiting times in London were ‘wholly unacceptable’.
Postwatch Greater London monitored seven post offices, including the crown post office at Shepherds Bush, and found that queuing times of 15 minutes were common, with the longest wait lasting half an hour.
Roger Darlington, former chairman of Postwatch Greater London, said: "It’s particularly concerning that, despite Post Office Ltd’s assurances, we found the average queuing times at all but one of the seven offices to be over ten minutes."
Shepherds Bush was found to be the fourth worst branch in London for queuing times, with an average time of 14 minutes, 12 seconds. Cllr Bristow conducted his own experiment at the post office, queuing with residents at the branch, and the results were shocking.
It took Cllr Bristow almost half an hour to reach a counter to post one small parcel. A row of customers stretched out of the door and at least five people in the same number of minutes took one look at the lengthy line and changed their minds.
Samuel Estifanos, 38, who works in the Shepherds Bush area, said: "I saw the queue and it was so long, I didn’t even join it. I just don’t have the time for it so I gave up straight away."
Pregnant Rohan Proctor, 23, is just two weeks away from giving birth. She waited 25 minutes to pay a bill – a task that took just seconds to complete. "It makes you so angry when you have to wait that long, especially as being pregnant I was desperate for the toilet," she said. "It’s really hard not to shout at someone, because everyone is tired and fed up of waiting."
Pensioner Emmanuel Joseph, 79, from Shepherds Bush, said: "It took me twenty minutes to get to the counter to just post one letter. It was difficult and it has made my legs tired. I was losing my patience a little bit."
"We want a solution to this problem quickly," said Cllr Bristow. "Reinstating a branch in W14 would mean the end of journeys out of the postcode for Olympia residents and workers, and would restore a sorely missed, vital community hub. The message is clear - give us back our post office!"
