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Islington Tribune - by ROISIN GADELRAB
Published: 19 September 2008

Town Hall looks to Camden to save Post Office

COUNCIL leaders are launching a final battle to save Goswell Road post office from closure after the Post Office declared this week it would shut soon.
Lib Dem leader Councillor James Kempton said this week the campaign to save the post office had failed but that he was in talks with neighbouring Camden Council to see if they could give advice on how to save the branch.
Islington Tories have condemned the Town Hall leadership for not stepping in sooner with an offer to subsidise the branch themselves.
Richard Bunting, deputy chairman of Islington Conservatives, said: “After meeting Post Office executives in Parliament, we discovered that the net cost to the post office counters for the running of the Goswell Road was just £23,000 a year. Although Emily Thornberry voted to close the post office, the Lib Dem council have failed to save Goswell Road for such a small sum of money.”
But Cllr Kempton said: “The Tories haven’t asked us if we’re going to try and save it. We’ve been in discussions for months and we’ve been talking to Camden Council to try and save the post offices. I’ll be writing to the Post Office to demand an urgent meeting. I want to see what the council can do to keep the post offices going in that area.”
The branch will be the 18th lost in Islington in 10 years.
The post office in Clerkenwell ward bordering Bunhill was not originally included in the Post Office’s list to meet the government’s target of closing 2,500 branches nationwide. However, the reprieve of a post office in Walthamstow saw the Goswell Road branch’s future put in doubt in June.
A Post Office spokeswoman said: “During the consultation period Post Office Ltd considered all responses. There are eight branches within a one-mile radius of the Goswell Road branch, offering capacity for additional customers as well as good disabled access and frequent bus services.”
Lib Dem parliamentary candidate Bridget Fox said: “I have met so many people who use this branch and depend on it. Other branches in Islington are too busy and too far away. The branch at Amwell Street closed two years ago and many people switched to using Goswell Road instead. Where are they supposed to go now?”
Council deputy leader Councillor Lucy Watt said: “It’s no good saying there are other branches if people are not physically able to get to them.
“I am disappointed and angry that this nationwide programme of closures has once again targeted Islington.
“I can only urge the Post Office to look again at our evidence and spare Goswell Road post office for the sake of all those who rely on it.”

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