9:50am Friday 26th September 2008
By David Paine
COUNCILLORS have not given up hope that post offices threatened with closure will be saved.
Wychavon District Council said it believed the five branches earmarked for closure in Bengeworth, Church Lench, Cleeve Prior, Pinvin and Wickamford all still played a vital economic and social role in the communities they serve.
Another branch in Elmley Castle is to be replaced by a mobile post office van available one-and-a-half hours a week.
However, there are fears that if one post office is saved, another one in the district might then be closed.
Councillor Martin King, who joined hundreds of others in a protest march through Evesham to try to save Bengeworth’s award-winning post office from closure last weekend, said the number of branches to be axed nationwide was not set in stone.
“It’s between 2,400 and 2,500,” he said. “There’s no specific requirement to close a particular number. I think it’s important to note that.”
Great Hampton councillor John Smith, who also attended the protest, said he thought the Government-led plans were a cost-cutting exercise that would go ahead one way or another.
“Very few potential closures are reprieved,” he said.
Conservative Coun Smith said he thought the Government could have used money it has set aside for other plans on saving post offices. Others said the council had a duty to show community leadership on a subject that affected its residents.
The Post Office has developed a network change programme which involves the compulsory compensated closure of up to 2,500 post offices out of 14,000 across the country because of a fall in the number of people using them.
It was proposed during Tuesday night’s full council meeting at the Civic Centre in Pershore to compile background information on all of the post offices threatened with closure in the district and outline reasons why they should be saved.
However, Pinvin councillor Liz Tucker said she was worried doing that would just provide a pecking order for closure. Leader Paul Middlebrough tried to allay her fears saying it would be a fact sheet, and a vote to approve the idea was carried after 31 councillors voted for it and five against.
A response to the Post Office’s public consultation, which ends on Tuesday, October 7, that said branches should be saved in areas where there is an important local economic benefit and where alternative services are not easily accessible was also approved. Information and guidance will be given to all communities affected by the proposed closures to help them respond effectively.
To express your views write to Mark Partington, Network Development Manager, c/o National Consultation Team, Freepost consultation team. A copy of letters should be sent to the consumer watchdog Postwatch, at Freepost Postwatch.
© Copyright 2001-2012 Newsquest Media Group
http://www.worcesternews.co.uk/trade_directory/