SECRET PLAN WOULD SHUT POST OFFICE
Tribune reveals bid to open new merged branch in Upper Street
Published: 17 September, 2010
by RÓISÍN GADELRAB
ROYAL MAIL is secretly drawing up “disastrous” plans to shut Highbury Corner post office and merge it with the Upper Street branch, the Tribune can reveal.
Islington Labour MPs Jeremy Corbyn and Emily Thornberry and councillors are gearing up for a battle to halt the closure.
The Post Office will not confirm it is in clandestine talks to shut the two branches and open a new post office in a privately-owned, former council office in Upper Street. But it has emerged that the plan was revealed to Town Hall chief executive John Foster in a letter last month.
Until then, Islington Council had been working with the Post Office on a scheme to build a new branch at Highbury Corner, next to the Marie Curie charity shop.
Tens of thousands of pounds of public money and time have been spent drawing up designs and preparing for the planning process.
But Post Office estates manager Steve Battison told Mr Foster in last month’s letter: “Our current view is that the proposed Highbury site does not fit with our plans for the area... Our preferred option, which we are currently pursuing, is to merge Highbury and the Islington Crown (Upper Street) offices into one.”
Mr Battison says the Post Office is “in discussion with new owners” of another site, believed to be 159-166 Upper Street. When asked to confirm its closure or merger plans, a Post Office spokesman said: “Our estate is always under review but, in the case of Highbury and Islington Crown offices, no firm proposals or decisions have been made. We are aware of plans to redevelop the present Highbury site and any potential changes to the location of the post office would be subject to public consultation.”
Last year, the Post Office was forced to back down on plans to shut the Essex Road branch after a spirited campaign by residents.
Labour councillor Paul Convery said the council was considering moving some of its business to the Post Office but would not do this if it goes ahead with the merger.
He added: “We’ve been having discussions to consider sending some of the council’s transactions through the Post Office. But if their business plan involves reducing the number of outlets, the logic of us using them would not make sense. The council has been quietly negotiating with the Post Office in good faith to give them a new building at Highbury Corner and we were ready to put a couple of million pounds into creating a new building. Then they pull the rug away. We have been stabbed in the back by the Post Office. This is a bitter blow for the people who live in the centre of the borough.”
He said the preparation work had cost public money and officials’ time. “It’s probably tens of thousands of pounds the Post Office has decided to burn,” he said.
Highbury Corner post office was exceptionally busy, he said. “Every day 50,000 or 60,000 people walk along those pavements,” Cllr Convery added. The rationale behind the closure of the St Paul’s Road branch had been that the Highbury Corner post office was 400 metres away.
Ms Thornberry and Mr Corbyn have written to Post Office minister Ed Davey demanding an urgent meeting to discuss the closures. In a joint letter, the MPs say they were “extremely alarmed” to discover the Highbury post office would not be moving into its planned new accommodation.
Mr Corbyn said yesterday: “We need to value our public services not destroy them. It will be a disaster if it closes.”
Lib Dem group leader Councillor Terry Stacy is planning to lobby Mr Davey at his party conference this weekend. He said: “I’m so annoyed at the backtracking that the Post Office is doing in regard to their commitment to providing a state-of-the-art post office at Highbury Corner. I oppose any intention to reduce the post office network in Islington.”