Council's next steps to save Post Offices
by Hammersmith and Fulham Press Office
20/03/2008
Hammersmith and Fulham Council is marching on in the fight to keep six Post Offices open in the borough and reopen a seventh in Olympia.
Residents packed out a public meeting at Hammersmith Town Hall last night to protest against the closure of 780 Fulham Road, 58 Kenyon Street, 146 Shepherds Bush Road, 68 Askew Road, 88 Goldhawk Road and Starch Green at 7 Kings Parade, Askew Road.
Councillor Paul Bristow, Cabinet Member for Residents’ Services, spoke about his hope for saving all the earmarked Post Offices and explained that following discussions with the Post Office, the council was targeting three areas in particular.
He said: “While we want to save each of these branches, we are looking at ways to save the three Post Offices we think we have most chance of saving, starting with reinstating a branch in W14 – the first London postcode not to have a Post Office since 1857. We are offering to house a branch in our Barons Court Library.”
The branch in Costcutter on the corner of Hammersmith Road and North End Road closed before Christmas and was the only remaining Post Office in W14. The Olympia area has a population of 35,000 – roughly the same amount of people that live in the town of Boston in Lincolnshire, which has 22 Post Offices.
There is hope that the Starch Green Post Office will remain open but failing this the council is offering nearby Askew Road Library as an alternative base.
Heather Armitage, secretary of Hammersmith & Fulham Pensioners’ Forum, lives in Barons Court. She said: “It really is bad for pensioners. It’s not just the inconvenience. The main Post Office in my area closed about a month before Christmas and it’s been a real blow. They didn’t even leave a post box. Removing the central branch in Hammersmith was the worst thing they’ve ever done.”
Simon Coventry, a resident from Brook Green, said: “We are looking at hour long queues in this borough rather than the 15 minutes it took me to get a parcel sent in the Shepherds Bush branch today.”
Hilda Earles’ nearest branch is Kenyon Street. She said: “We fought for this Post Office to open 24 years ago and now it is closing! There are many people living in sheltered housing in the area who use it and the nearest one is half a mile away and many of them can’t get on a bus to go somewhere else.”
Nick Beale, the Post Office’s Network Planning Manager for London, explained the criteria that were being applied across the country and confirmed that a higher proportion of Post Offices in London were being closed than elsewhere in the country.
Shepherds Bush Road is one of the few London Post Offices that is actually making a profit but Mr Beale stated that financial viability was only one factor taken into account when deciding on which branches to close.
So far the Post Office has refused to release figures but speaking about H&F’s possible solution to the cuts, Mr Beale said: “We have had discussions with Hammersmith & Fulham and if these continue into a way that we can potentially work together, subject to confidentiality, we will share financial information with them.”
The branch at 146 Shepherds Bush Road has been named by independent watchdog for postal services, Postwatch, as one of the top five closures in London it is most worried about.
Roger Darlington, Chair of Postwatch in Greater London, said at the meeting: “We physically visited every Post Office we had concerns about and we still have serious concerns at 146 Shepherds Bush Road. We will weigh up all the information but our experience has been a couple of proposals will be withdrawn – but you’re probably talking single figures.”
“This is the decimation of our Post Office network,” added Cllr Bristow. “The Post Office has told us that it is more impressed by quality rather than quantity. The council have made it clear about how we will negotiate on keeping them open and our message is clear – enough is enough.”
The council is working on preparing a detailed submission to present to the Post Office before the consultation period ends on April 2 and is encouraging residents to offer relevant information towards this. They can also still sign the council’s petition and get more information about what they can do to fight the planned closures, including writing directly to the Post Office, by visiting http://www.lbhf.gov.uk/postofficeclosures.
