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Post Office Closures
Read more
about what Sadiq has done in his campaign
HERE
Post
Office Ltd plans to close four Sub-Post Offices in
our community.
The Sub-Post
Offices proposed for closure are:
·
258 Balham High Road
·
179 Garratt Lane
·
274 Mitcham Lane
·
318 Trinity Road
Sadiq
campaigned against these closures with local residents,
organised mass petitions against the closure and met the
Minister of State for Post Offices, Pat McFadden, to discuss
the impact closing this Post Office would have on local
residents.
Throughout this process Sadiq
has been a strong advocate for keeping local Post Offices
open, whilst acknowledging the need to modernise and
stabilise the Network nationally, and have not played party
politics in relation to this.
The stark reality is that
some Post Offices around the country do need to close as
they are rarely used and are increasingly reliant on huge
unsustainable government subsidies to stay open.
However, there are strong
grounds for keeping Tooting's Post Offices open. Even more
so if the local Council were to provide these Post Offices
with more Council business.
On Wednesday 2nd
April, at the end of a six week public consultation, Sadiq
submitted the case to Post Office Ltd to all four of
Tooting's Post Offices open. The submission argued
that Post Office Ltd had made mistakes in their consultation
and failed to take into account how important the Post
Offices in Tooting were to local residents, who rely heavily
on the services they provide.
Sadly, following the public
consultation, Post Office Ltd decided to go ahead with the
closure of the Post Office branch.
Sadiq is
very angry that Post Office Ltd has decided to close all
four Post Offices in our community in the face of
overwhelming public opposition.
Sadiq has written to Postwatch,
the independent watchdog for postal services in the United
Kingdom, requesting an immediate review of the decision to
close this Post Office branch. He isunhappy with Post
Office Ltd’s assessment of the evidence submitted to them in
the consultation period and believes they have not given
appropriate weight to the facts made available to them in my
submission.
What can we do now?
What is needed now are
practical solutions to the problems our Post Offices are
facing and this is what Sadiq has been working towards.
Sadiq has been lobbying
the Council for the last 3 months to come up with a rescue
package for local Post Offices. This would mean delivering
some of the services currently performed by Council offices
such as purchasing parking permits, paying Council Tax and
rent and renewing Freedom Passes, as a way of generating
more businesses for struggling Post Offices.
Wandsworth Council are
beginning to react to the closures, entering into
partnerships with local organisations to run Post Office
services, but their plans to save Post Offices in Wandsworth
only extend to Putney and Battersea. They still have not
come up with a rescue package for any of the four Post
Office branches threatened with closure in the Balham and
Tooting area.
Sadiq has written to
the leader of the Council, Councillor Edward Lister, asking
him what plans the Council has to enter into a partnership
with our local Post Offices, and urging him to do the same
for the people of Balham and Tooting.
Rather than further
delay, the Council need to step in now and begin
negotiations with Post Office Ltd to secure the future of
Post Office services in Tooting.
You can help by writing to the
Council and asking them to do more.
You can write to Cllr Lister
at the following address:
Councillor Edward Lister
Leader of the Council
Wandsworth Borough Council
The Town Hall
Wandsworth High Street
London
SW18 2PU
Or you can email
him at: elister@wandsworth.gov.uk
Please send
Sadiq a copy of any correspondence with the Council.
This information
is correct as of 10th June 2008
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