Post Offices - Under Threat Again
Once again Hall Green residents are threatened with post office closures. Following the closure of the post office in Highfield Road, changes on the Parade and threats elsewhere, we are now faced with closures of the post offices at the Robin Hood Island (shown in our photograph) and in Shaftmoor Lane. As you may remember, your local councillors and the community have fought very hard over the years to keep our post offices open (and indeed tried to get a replacement post office at the convenience store in Highfield Road) and retain their valuable services.
Campaigning together is the best way that we can show that the people will not be treated as mere profit fodder, nor will we stand idly by while our post offices are swept away in another tide of government driven corporate cleansing. So far no less than 4,000 post offices have been closed under Labour (following the 3,500 closures during the Conservatives time in office). As if this wasn’t enough, it is now planned to close 2,500 more.
The government has ruthlessly withdrawn services from the Post Office. Last year alone they took out business worth £168,000,000. The way that these cuts in income and unwanted changes have been forced through by government and heartless, bossy and overpaid managers higher up in the post office is a disgrace.
A closed branch doesn’t only mean the loss of services to local people, it also has a series of knock-on effects as nearby shops suffer (and may also subsequently close) with people having to make awkward journeys to other offices - and finding queues when they get there. The distance measure is flawed, and even now (following the Highfield Road cut) there are people in their eighties in Hall Green who are faced with a round trip that can take up to an hour and a half. Post Offices are much more than businesses and people are much more than ‘punters’. Indeed, for many people, particularly the elderly, vulnerable or isolated, post offices are lifelines.
Previous experience shows that if we can’t prevent this latest lot of closures, then the axe will fall again before long. In our next Hall Green Focus newsletter there will of course be a petition and there will be posters and press releases. But the main chance of success is the extent of public opposition to the cuts. Please do all you can to make your views known. Don’t let this be the last post!
You can sign our on-line petition (click the ’Useful Link’ to the petition on the left hand sidebar) or email your support to Michael, Paula or Jackie as:
Michael.Wilkes@birmingham.gov.uk
Paula.D.Smith@birmingham.gov.uk
Jackie.Hawthorn@birmingham.gov.uk
In our view, governments spend far too much of their time with their heads in the clouds fiddling with ‘high finance’ and not nearly enough time considering the interests of local communities. The Government and the Post Office (and the MPs and Labour councillors that supported them) must realise that they have got it very badly wrong and they must think again!
