Camden New Journal - News: Full supporting cast as comedian and actor join post office protest

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Camden New Journal - by DAN CARRIER
Published: 20 March 2008

Victoria Wood and Bill Paterson with campaigners fighting to save the post office

Full supporting cast as comedian and actor join post office protest

THERE was nothing funny about comedian Victoria Wood’s appearance in Highgate Village on Tuesday morning – she was lending her support to the burgeoning campaign to save the post office.
Ms Wood, who lives in Highgate, joined about 100 shoppers and members of the Highgate Society to protest at plans to shut the High Street post office. It has been earmarked for closure along with post offices in Hampstead, Belsize Park and Somers Town.
Ms Wood said: “This post office provides a vital service to Highgate. It is always well-used – there are often queues. I cannot think of a single good reason for it to close.
“It has a great shop there too. They sell so many helpful things. When you lose an ordinary, everyday facility like this, it makes the place that little less nice to live in.”
She added: “It is busy all the time and a major asset for the High Street. The nearest other post office is a long walk up a steep hill.”
Actor Bill Paterson, star of BBC’s The Crow Road who lives in Highgate Village, said: “Post offices closed in Archway recently with little or no fuss. Now is the time to stand up against these plans. I am determined to do something about it this time – it must not be ignored.”
Mr Paterson said independent traders such as the post office gave the village its unique feel. “The chains are coming into the village – estate agents are very dominant,” he added.
For retired lecturer John Mead, a wheelchair user who lives in Bisham Gardens, the post office is vital. “For me to go elsewhere would be a real struggle and probably finish me off for the day,” he said. “If this closes, people will have no option but to use their cars, so it is an environmental issue as well as a practical one about the future of the High Street.”
A meeting in Hampstead on Monday, chaired by Lib-Dem councillor Arthur Graves, was attended by more than 70 supporters of the closure-threatened England’s Lane and South End Road post offices.
Representatives from the Post Office told an angry audience they had to shut 2,500 offices. If they gave any in Camden a stay of execution, it would be at the expense of others elsewhere.

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