Post offices downsized

Published: 8 October, 2010

• IT felt like a case of déjà vu when I heard that the Post Office is planning to close its branch at Highbury Corner (Secret plan would shut post office, September 17).

Rather than replace it with a new branch, it looks likely to merge it with the one in Upper Street. 

You only have to look at the constant queues to see there is an enormous demand at both locations and there has to be a real concern that any amalgamation is really just an excuse to downsize.

It doesn’t seem that long ago that we were having similar arguments over Essex Road post office.

Post offices play a pivotal role in maintaining local economies and have the potential to help address financial exclusion. 

According to the New Economics Foundation: “For every £10 earned in income, a post office generates £16.20 for its local economy.”

There is clearly a fundamental problem with the structure of Post Office Ltd if these busy businesses are apparently not viable.

The process towards privatisation will surely only make things worse.

Isn’t it time for politicians to realise, as the Green Party does already, that post offices are an important public service and should be run as such.

It’s no good for local politicians just to roll up each each time a post office is threatened.

Everyone tried to claim they had saved Essex Road.

However, as the deeper issues weren’t faced, it appears the problem was simply pushed around the borough.

Last time around, Labour called on the Lib Dems to act, as Essex County Council did, to intervene and fund threatened post offices, turning them into the community resources they should be.

Now Labour is in a position to act, will it do so?

And is there any chance of the Lib Dems standing up to their Conservative “partners” in government and telling them their own policy, which is to “retain Post Office Limited in the public sector”, is non-negotiable?

CAROLINE ALLEN
Islington Green Party