SAVE OUR POST OFFICES: Petition handed over at Worthing public meeting
A PETITION containing more than 6,000 signatures protesting at local post office closures was handed over to Post Office representatives at a pre-Christmas public meeting in Worthing.
The packed meeting was called by East Worthing and Shoreham MP Tim Loughton to protest at the proposed closure of nine sub-post office branches in Worthing and Adur.
Post Office officials were presented with the 6,166-signature petition by Mr Loughton and Anne Barlow, deputy leader of Worthing Borough Council.
Signatures were collected from around Worthing and Adur in just a few weeks, and also formed the basis of the petition presented to Parliament the previous Monday before a special debate was held on post office closures in Adur and Worthing.
The meeting, held in Broadwater Parish Rooms, was attended by residents, councillors and the threatened sub-postmasters, together with Worthing MPs Mr Loughton and Peter Bottomley (Worthing West).
Post Office representatives Nick Beal and Akudo Ukachukwu explained their reasons for the closures, and took questions from an angry audience.
Mr Loughton commented: "The strength of feeling against these proposed closures is running high across Worthing and Adur, where my constituency seems to have been hit disproportionately to the rest of Sussex with no fewer than seven post offices threatened.
"Yet again, at this meeting, we were effectively responding to the Post Office with one hand tied behind our backs as we just do not know the extent of the losses they claim these branches are making, nor what could be done to boost their business and aid their profitability.
"It is as if the death warrants have already been signed and now the Post Office is content to rely on dodgy evidence against the victims."
There were loud cheers when audience members suggested that it was the loss-making crown post offices which should be closed, and the "much-friendlier and efficient" branch network of sub-post offices which should be saved.
Speaker after speaker emphasised the enormous pressures already on the main post office in Chapel Road, and concerns that the increased business from the closures would be unsustainable, although Mr Loughton said the Post Office seemed resigned to lose a lot of its business from the closures in any case.
Mr Loughton continued: "I have been overwhelmed with copies of letters and emails sent to the Post Office as part of the local consultation response – which ended on December 24 – and I hope the Post Office study these properly to see how disproportionately we are being targeted, despite a well above-average elderly population and areas of deprivation which rely heavily on local post office services.
"Whereas, nationally, 18 per cent of branches are facing the axe, in Adur in particular the figure is nearer 50 per cent of our sub-post offices, and that cannot be fair or sustainable."
l Local sub-post offices threatened with the axe are:
Worthing – The Parade, 40 Broadwater Road; Downlands Parade: 62-66 Heene Road; The Strand.
Shoreham – Old Shoreham, Upper Shoreham Road; West Beach, 132 Beach Green.
Lancing – 83 South Street; Mill Road.
Sompting – Bowness Avenue.
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Tuesday 14 February 2012
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