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From left, postmistress Jayshree Depula, Bridget Fox and customers Karen Winslow, Dolly Sparks, Pat Croci and David Searle at Stock Orchard Crescent sub-post office |
Closure axe poised over another two post offices
Call for future of Highbury Corner counter to be safeguarded
CAMPAIGNERS were dealt a new blow this week with the announcement that another two post offices are earmarked for closure in Islington.
The two sub-offices, at either end of Caledonian Road, now join the main Essex Road branch, which is expected to shut in the next few months.
They are among 169 post offices in London earmarked for closure in a package announced on Tuesday.
London Mayor Ken Livingstone has said he will mount a legal challenge to the planned closures.
Already 10 post offices and sub-offices have been shut in the borough since 1999. Campaigners claim this has resulted in longer queues and created problems for elderly customers who have to travel further to find a post office.
They now fear the post office at Highbury Corner – where queues already stretch onto the pavement – will not be replaced when it closes during redevelopment of the station and roundabout.
Two campaigns have been mounted to save Islington’s post offices – one by Islington South and Finsbury Labour MP Emily Thornberry and the other by Lib Dem prospective parliamentary candidate Bridget Fox, the former deputy leader of Islington Council.
Ms Thornberry hopes to organise a deputation to Post Office HQ in London, taking with her Islington North Labour MP Jeremy Corbyn and Islington Lib Dem Mayor Councillor Barbara Smith.
She said: “I want to see a post office of some kind on all the major roads in Islington. I also want the future of the Highbury Corner post office guaranteed. I want to know why they can save crown post offices in other parts of London but not, it appears, in Islington.”
The two sub-post offices newly under threat in Caledonian Road are at the junction with Stock Orchard Crescent, in Holloway, and near Copenhagen Street, in King’s Cross.
Ms Fox led a demonstration outside the Stock Orchard Crescent sub-post office on Tuesday.
She said: “Hundreds of customers are going to be affected, including many elderly and vulnerable people. We’ve got a number of big estates where people are going to be very disadvantaged.”
She added that the nearest post office would be at the Nag’s Head, about a mile away.
Postmaster Suresh Depula believed there had been a post office on the site for more than 100 years. “Business is booming and we’ve usually got queues,” he said. “This is not a good time to close this sub-post office.”
Customer Pat Croci, one of half a dozen queuing outside the sub-post office on Tuesday, said: “We can’t afford to lose another sub-post office.”
Another customer, Dolly Sparks, agreed. “I have to go to Holloway to the main office,” she said. “It’s quite a distance. There’s no consideration.”
Childminder Karen Winslow said: “I’m disgusted. This sub-office has always been very handy.”
London Assembly Labour member Jennette Arnold is to add her voice to the post office campaign.
She said: “I am worried that at a time when we are seeking to regenerate poorer areas of London, traders will be hit by the loss of an important local service which attracts shoppers and business.
“I will be making strong representations to the Post Office.” |
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