MP's 'regret' as post offices axed
IN an open letter to Worthing's sub postmasters, MP Peter Bottomley has criticised the consultation process.
The Herald is publishing his letter in full below:
Dear Sub Postmasters
I deeply regret the recent decision to close both Heene Road and The Strand post offices – 47 other post offices are also designated for closure in Sussex.
Tim Loughton MP and I have campaigned hard to try to prevent these planned closures in our constituencies.
Thank you to the 6600 people who supported our campaign to save the post offices and signed the petition which we presented to Parliament.
Thank you also to the many people that wrote to me expressing their deep and understandable concern.
The Post Office says that they have looked at the factors of "commercial viability, local demographics and effect on local economy".
I do not believe that the full effects that these closures will have on the people that use them has been considered.
I commented in an adjournment debate in December on the closures, "One of the reasons why that matters a lot in Worthing….is that people over 85 are not those who get their car licences on the internet or who can get their money conveniently when they go out to work.
"At 85, relatively few are working."
Heene Road post office is in the centre of not just the constituency that has perhaps the highest proportion of over 85-year-olds in the country, but probably has the highest proportion of any ward in Worthing.
The area has a very high proportion of people who are reasonably active and who can get to the local post office, but who will find going along Rowlands Road, nearly a mile to the nearest alternative, much more difficult.
The Strand post office is near to Worthing College, Lloyds TSB Registrars, the Inland Revenue and to the headquarters of the Primary Care Trust.
In addition, there are many people in that residential area and they will have to go from The Strand to George V Avenue in Goring.
I believe that the alternatives are totally impractical for the people in that residential area or for the people who come to The Strand because their work or education takes them there.
These post office closures will make the elderly and vulnerable more isolated and have a negative effect on the local communities.
It is simply unrealistic to expect them to walk one mile or to rely on the infrequent public transport.
Unfortunately this is not a new process: it is the continuation of a process that has already closed seven post offices in my constituency.
There are still people in Ferring, Rustington, Goring and central Worthing who deeply regret the decisions that were made then.
Sadly two more communities will now be added to that list.
Yours sincerely,
Peter Bottomley
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Tuesday 29 May 2012
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