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Post offices: let’s fight on
• HOPEFULLY, there is just enough time for a final attempt – with a new powerful ally – to save at least some of our London post offices. Mayor of London Boris Johnson expressed an interest in the subject just before his election, so we can hope he will wish to build on his evident popularity by raising fresh objections to any further extremely unpopular closures.
Local campaigns were inevitably weakened by not knowing enough about the circumstances of areas other than their own. But it has long been clear that huge numbers of people, including thousands of Londoners, oppose the closure of the already depleted number of offices nationwide.
My impression is that this is one of the most unpopular government measures, after the 10p tax debacle. So the government might well benefit by another U-turn over forcing these measures through.
Many pensioners’ organisations have been making strong protests. Pensioners and disabled people, particularly, would suffer severely from having to go further to reach a post office.
But closures would seriously inconvenience everyone, businesses included, since long waits lose working hours. I note from various Islington post offices that they are almost permanently overflowing with customers obliged to wait for time-consuming periods in spite of the unremitting work of Royal Mail staff behind their counters.
Making economies is given as the government’s reason for making privatisations. But private firms happily volunteer to take over post offices, and obviously would not do so unless they reckoned they could be run profitably.
They may indeed require technological improvements at the start, but this seems a safe and worthy sphere of investment in an essential service. Many may consider that it is undignified, perhaps even dishonourable, for our government to absolve itself from running a national public service.
After failing to make headway with Postwatch and other organisations involved, I have written to Mr Johnson asking if he would make an urgent intervention. Add your individual and organisations’ pleas to ours!
Angela Sinclair
Islington Pensioners’ Forum
• THE Lib Dems are good at protesting, which suits them in opposition. But when they are in charge, they don’t know what to do.
The Lib Dems quickly claimed credit for saving Essex Road post office. But when MP Emily Thornberry announced her guarantee from the Post Office about it, the Lib Dem leader said: “I spoke to the Post Office yesterday and was told nothing of the sort” (Hopes soar in fight to save post office, March 28). He can’t have been that involved in saving it then.
But the Lib Dems really fall apart over two post office branches on Cally Road. Labour councillor Richard Greening has put together a plan for a funding package which would allow Islington Council to save them. So how have the Lib Dems reacted?
A Lib Dem councillor said: “We had the financial figures that Cllr Greening is referring to months ago” (‘It’s time to deliver on post offices’, May 23). But the Post Office’s network director confirmed that only Cllr Greening and his assistant had seen the figures.
The Lib Dem leader also said: “We know other councils are looking at running other post offices, but the Post Office has refused to meet us about this” (Shock news of closures takes shine off success, May 9). But when asked about this, the Post Office’s network director said “a meeting has not been requested”.
Another Lib Dem seemed to be more honest when she said: “We’re not going to say yes we will step in” (March 14), claiming it wasn’t the council’s job to spend money keeping post offices open. But she is now claiming that “money is not the obstacle to our involvement, if local people decide this is how they want their council tax spent” (May 23).
What is going on? Is the Lib Dem administration being purposely misleading? Or has it gone into meltdown? Whatever the truth of the matter, one thing is clear: when it comes to leadership, the Lib Dems have nothing to offer.
Cllr Barry Edwards
Labour, Holloway ward
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