Save Our Post Office

Trouble in Post Office paradise
Toby Walne, Mail on Sunday
16 June 2008

The hordes of visitors arriving next month to enjoy the beauty of Cumbria and the southern part of the Lake District will probably not notice, but local people are braced to lose 45 of their 271 post offices - part of a nationwide programme that will see 2,500 branches axed over the next 18 months…

WINDERMERE, SOUTH LAKELAND

This tourist magnet offers everything from steamship rides on the lake to shops full of souvenirs celebrating the stories and life of local author Beatrix Potter. But despite the bustle, this thriving town is losing one of its two post offices.

Heathwaite Post Office & Stores in Park Road has been earmarked for closure next month after a six-week ‘consultation’ that ended late last month.

But the truth behind this consultation sham is exposed with a sign on the glass booth. ‘We regret to inform you that this branch closed temporarily on 14 March, 2008,’ it says. It never reopened.

Shop assistant Zaria Marr, 48, who also helped to run the post office, says: ‘The writing was on the wall when the Post Office took away pension books and stopped us selling TV licences. When it takes away your business, how can you survive?’

Customer Stewart Hulse, 73, who was appointed an MBE five years ago after 42 years as a volunteer for the Langdale/Ambleside Mountain Rescue Team, says: ‘There is a lot of sheltered housing and elderly people in this area who relied on this branch. It played a vital role within our community - the spirit of the area may die.’

Less than half a mile away at the branch on Crescent Road the mood is bullish. Sub-postmaster Alec Wheeler, 64, was told earlier this year his branch would survive.

The slate-roofed post office is majestic, with its Lakeland stone exterior spoilt only by tacky ‘People’s Post Office’ advertising banners that he has been ordered to display.

Alex has no time for sentiment and says bluntly: ‘It is certainly right to make sure there is a viable Post Office network in the future. If branches are not used, they should be closed.’

But Catherine Robinson, 38, out with her two-year-old son Tom, and her friend Annabel Jones, 37, with son Connor, 7, are not so hard-nosed.

Catherine says: ‘Of course, there is often an economic case for post office closures, but this must be balanced with the social service that branches provide for their community. These closures are forced on us without proper consultation. No one seems to listen to what customers want.’

BEETHAM POST OFFICE, YEW TREE HOUSE, NEAR MILNTHORPE

The village’s beautiful post office has an impressive stone entrance arch over an iron-studded oak front door that remains permanently open to welcome villagers and walkers who often come in to relax and enjoy refreshments at the tearoom upstairs. Outside the post office, hanging baskets, surrounding trees and neighbouring homes are decorated with hundreds of yellow ribbons.

Sub-postmistress Lynn Wyse, 50, says: ‘Earlier this year we were stunned when the Post Office told us we had been chosen for closure. I couldn’t believe it as we are always busy. Villagers have decorated the whole area with yellow ribbons to show they still want a post office.’

Colourful protest: Lynn Wyse with one of the hundreds of yellow ribbons in Beetham
She reels off the names of nearby communities, such as Slack Head, Whasset, Haverbrack, Hale and Silverdale, that bring the population served by the branch to about 1,700 -something the Post Office has failed to acknowledge.

Environmental consultant John Duckworth, 43, has made his daily half-mile walk through the woods from his home to post business parcels. His partner, Pat Burrows, 44, suffers from multiple sclerosis and finds it difficult to walk far.

John says: ‘This post office is a lifeline and helps her to maintain independence as it has great disability access. The nearest branch is only a mile-anda-half away in Milnthorpe, but the bus service was recently axed and parking there is a real problem.’

Gladys James, 76, whose 80-year-old husband Fred was a council worker, visited the branch to pick up her pension on the Post Office card account and do some basic banking. ‘This is bad, very bad,’ she says of the threatened closure.

‘It fills me with anger as well as dread. Do they really just want to destroy rural communities. What on earth is the logic? Many elderly people will be absolutely lost if this branch closes.’

Gladys is also furious that benefits books were scrapped. She got a Post Office card account only after a fight because she did not want benefits paid direct into a bank account.

GREENODD, CRAKE VALLEY, SOUTH LAKES

It is hard not to rub your eyes in disbelief. Greenodd is an unspoilt village that still has a bakery, a butcher’s shop, primary school and two pubs. But thanks to the Post Office in London, life in this idyllic village will soon be fractured following a decision to axe the local branch.

Sub-postmistress Janet Willis, 46, whose husband Lloyd, 50, runs the attached newsagent and grocery shop, is not giving up without a fight. Visitors are greeted with a huge protest sign in red letters on the hillside as they drive into Greenodd.

The biggest attraction at the post office is Janet’s 12-year-old golden retriever Bridie, who spends most of the day lying across the stone slab by the front door waiting for visiting children to make a fuss of her.

Villagers even brought out a Bridie’s Brew ‘Save our Post Office’ bottled beer and staged tractor-led convoys, a lifeboat demonstration, school marches and prayer vigils during the six weeks of ‘consultation’ that ended on May 27.

Closure is planned for next month. Janet says: ‘The community support has been incredible - this is why we will not be bullied into closure without a fight.

‘There is simply no logic why a vital and well-supported branch such as ours should be forced to shut down.’

The 250-strong community is close by Penny Bridge village and serves an outlying community of at least 1,000. Ulverston is only four miles to the south, but there is no post office north of Greenodd for 10 miles until Coniston. Post Office guidelines say rural communities should be served by a post office within three miles.

Retired vicar David Gregg, 70, visiting the branch with his wife, Jackie, also 70, recently held a prayer evening for the post office attended by about 50 parishioners at the village hall. ‘The Post Office does not realise it provides a key public service,’ he says and points to the increased pollution created by people having to get into their vehicles and drive for miles to another branch.

Youngsters at the Penny Bridge Church of England School as well as the Greenodd Pre-School Club have made banners in support of the branch, many of which can be seen in the windows of houses.

Joanne Clarke, 35, who is out with her youngest daughter, Melissa, 3, says: ‘This post office is my financial lifeline. This is no exaggeration as I have no car and the public transport is lousy. I am deeply worried for the future.’

Top dog: Melissa Clarke and Bridie, whose face is on a special campaign bottled beer
Lawyer Laura Southern, 44, out with daughter Annabel, 4, and her friend Hana Cropley, also 4, says: ‘The post office is a focal point for us all. I fear local businesses will suffer if it closes.’

She is scornful of plans to introduce a mobile van ‘outreach service’ for ten hours a week, believing it is totally impractical for the needs of the community.

A diary of decline - How the network has been run down

•• 2000: At the start of the millennium Britain has 19,000 post offices, but over the next few years many hundreds will close due to a lack of investment, bureaucratic bungling and a Government squeeze.

•• February 2003: The Government launches a misleadingly titled ‘urban reinvention programme’ that aims to close 3,000 of the 8,500 branches in towns and cities. Sub- postmasters are ‘bribed’ with an average pay-off of £60,000 to shut up shop. The Post Office claims there will be no need for further closures.

•• April 2003: Benefits passbooks are scrapped. They accounted for about 40% of branch revenue and were used by 14m on benefits. The Department for Work and Pensions fails to tell people they are legally entitled to carry on using benefits books. But a campaign of intimidation by the Government begins with mailings and phone calls to pressure benefits recipients into having cash paid direct into their bank account rather than via a card account. Despite this, 4.5m people take the card option, which allows them to continue using their post office.

•• April 2006: The Government breaks a promise on the card by announcing it will be axed in 2010. It is later forced into a U-turn after more than 4.5m signatures of complaint. Instead, it will put the contract out to tender, with the winner announced in the summer of 2008. The Government spent £1bn introducing the card.

•• July 2006: Post Office loses the right to sell TV licences to private rival PayPoint.

•• September 2007: The latest closure programme of 3,000 branches begins over the following two years. Despite consultation promises, are given only six weeks to fight and most are not visited by officials.

•• June 2008: Many profit-making branches are targeted for closure. An additional 4,000 may be forced out of business.

The future is bleak. By the Post Office’s own admission, as few as 4,000 branches are required if the network is to get into the black. The Post Office is losing £500,000 a day.

North-West Evening Mail
Benefits contract key to our future

UNDER THREAT: Millom Post Office and sub-postmaster Ged McGrath

AS the final announcement on post office closures due on June 17 gets closer, I hope that the communities that use Greenodd, Leven Valley and Anty Cross Post Offices that have campaigned so vigorously are successful in retaining their local post offices.

The fight against closure will, however, need to continue, as many of our members still continue to struggle to make a profit out of their businesses. The next threat to them is not a compensated closure programme, as is currently running with network change, but a wholesale closure effecting up to 3,000 more offices if this government does not award the next DWP contract to the post office.

More than four million people across the UK, including hundreds in Millom, choose to receive their state benefits at the post office using the Post Office Card Account.

However this service is now under threat. The government is currently considering bids to run the new POCA from 2010 and we have serious concerns that it may decide to award the contract to another bidder.

I believe that the Post Office is best placed to continue to provide this service. We offer local, convenient access for customers who trust the staff and Post Office brand. It also means customers won’t have to fill out forms, be forced to open bank accounts or travel long distances to inconvenient and unfamiliar locations

Without the POCA I fear that my post office and more than 3,000 others across the country will be forced to close. This will further reduce the number of local post offices leading to more difficulties for local residents and businesses

That is why I have written to my MP Jamie Reed asking him to write to the Prime Minister to urge that the government awards the contract to the Post Office. If it fails to do so, the consequences for local post offices will be devastating.

As the tenders have now been submitted to government, the Federation of Sub-Postmasters has launched a postcard campaign to lobby support from MPs. To ensure the Post Office win this important contract, I hope that the public will support their local sub-postmaster in this campaign.

The Post Office is, and hopefully will remain, at the heart of our communities, but to continue it needs the public’s support, not only in campaigning against closures but in day to day use.

So if you are one of those people who have not used your local office recently, go and see what is on offer. New products in recent years include home phone and broadband packages, insurance, Christmas Clubs, credit cards, travel money and more.

GED McGRATH
Sub-Postmaster Millom Post Office
President Lancaster and South Cumbria Branch
Federation of Sub-Postmasters

       (click to enlarge) 

Westmorland Gazette On-Line
The last stand
By Matthew Taylor
Comment

GREENODD residents will launch their final protest against the threatened closure of the village post office with a 10-vehicle convoy along the A590 to Ulverston on Saturday.

Headed by a 1969 Glen Harley Leyland flatbed truck, the convoy will set off from Greenodd at 8.30am, travelling an average speed of 10-15mph before arriving at Ulverston Coronation Hall. Local band, Blast Furnace will then play a gig from the back of the lorry.

People wishing to support the convoy are asked to form part of the greeting party in Ulverston, but not to travel as part of the convoy itself, as this would contravene rules for the protest stipulated by the police. Organiser, John Eaton, also asked people to dress in red for the event.
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Greenodd residents are being encouraged to perform a transaction at Ulverston Post Office on the day to demonstrate that the proposed transfer of custom from Greenodd is unviable, and would swamp the Ulverston branch with excess custom.

9:30am Wednesday 21st May 2008

Sunday 18 May 2008, Greenodd, Cumbria….

Ulverston In-Shore Rescue staged an impressive demonstration today, swooping down the Crake Estuary to “save” two floundering pieces of post. An oversized parcel and enormous letter were dropped from the pedestrian bridge which spans the estuary near to Greenodd.

Watched by about 70 enthusiastic supporters of the Greenodd Post Office, the rescue was efficiently carried off and the endangered post brought back to land at Greenodd slipway.

Many thanks to Bruce and his colleagues from Ulverston In-Shore Rescue who have embraced this local grass roots campaign to keep the village post office safe.

North-West Evening Mail
LIFELINE FOR POST OFFICES
Published on 14/05/2008
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PUPIL PROTEST: Aislinn Stanway, of Penny Bridge Primary School, marches down to Greenodd Village Post Office yesterday as the whole school posted letters of protest about the proposed closure of the branch LINDSEY DICKINGS REF: 0429784

THREE South Lakeland post offices listed for closure have been offered a glimmer of hope.

Post Office bosses have pledged to review the closure decision for Greenodd and Leven Valley Post Offices.

Westmorland and Lonsdale MP Tim Farron organised for senior Post Office officials to meet with representatives of Greenodd, Leven Valley and Beetham post offices last Wednesday.

At those meetings, representatives were given cause for cautious optimism by the assurances to review the closure decisions made by Richard Lynds from Post Office Limited’s Network Change Team.

Mr Farron said: “It is too early to get our hopes up, but it’s clear that local campaigners in Beetham, Greenodd and Leven Valley have made a real impact on Post Office Ltd.

“We must keep up the fight over the next few weeks before the consultation period closes.”

Postmistress Debbie Harte, of Leven Valley Post Office, said that she felt their arguments were taken into consideration.

She said: “I got the impression that we were being listened to, so I came out feeling quite positive. But whether that will mean we stay open is a different matter entirely.

“People obviously want to keep the post office open as we are a long way from Ulverston and Kendal.”

Representatives from Leven Valley Post Office told Post Office bosses that the proposed outreach service site, at the Whitewater Hotel, was inadequate in terms of access and parking.

It would only open for nine hours a week, as opposed to the current 45 hours a week, and the closure of the Post Office will also result in the loss of the village shop.

Janet Willis, who runs Greenodd Post Office with her husband Lloyd, also felt the meeting was useful.

The Greenodd campaigners presented Richard Lynds with evidence of the parking difficulties at the proposed outreach service outside the village hall.

They also presented evidence of the geographical reach of the post office’s current customers, who would be forced to travel to the already busy Ulverston Post Office if Greenodd was to close.

Mrs Willis said: “Richard Lynds seemed quite impressed with the evidence that we presented. He said that rather than tugging at his heart strings he wanted facts and figures.”

Greenodd Post Office has organised a public meeting, set to take place in the village hall on Tuesday (20) at 7.30pm, for a final show of support for the campaign.

Penny Bridge Primary School is continuing to back the campaign to save Greenodd Post Office, and yesterday almost 100 children marched to the post office to send off their individual letters of support.

The consultation on the closure of 35 post offices across Cumbria is set to end on May 27.

Regarding last week’s meetings, a spokeswoman from Post Office Ltd said: “No decisions have been made on the branches which will close. The public consultation period for the Cumbria area ends on 27 May, before that time Post Office Ltd are happy to receive representations from local residents, MPs and other interested parties.”

There is still time to write and support your local post office, letters should be addressed to: Richard Lynds, Network Development Manager, Post Office Ltd, Freepost Consultation Team.