The following is the text of my letter to the ‘Consultation Team’ on Post Office closures. Please feel free to use this text in whole or in part in any response that you make (which I hope many will).

Your views can go direct by email to the address immediately below and we have until Monday August 4^th to get these in. So hurry - time is running out!

To: consultation@postoffice.co.uk

Dear Sirs,

I write as a City Councillor for Hall Green ward and as part of the local public consultation. I must express the very gravest concerns at your proposed closure of the Robin Hood Post Office at 1537 Stratford Road, Hall Green, Birmingham B28 9JA. I wish to bring a number of important facts to your attention.

This excellent post office serves a wide and diverse area providing an outstanding and much needed service to the community. Given the number of elderly people in the area served by this office and the fact that it is the local office for most of the nearby Pitmaston Estate (which was identified as a target area for NRF funds due to deprivation), it is one which I thought would be secure.

Certainly, if Robin Hood Post Office were to close it would be a very severe blow to all the pensioners, vulnerable people and many others who depend on the service that it provides. Closure would undermine the viability of the local parade of shops in which Robin Hood Post Office stands. We have already seen elsewhere in Hall Green the impact on a local parade in the case of your earlier closure of Highfield Road Post Office.

I understand that a member of your staff will have visited the locality of Robin Hood Post Office. I have reviewed the ‘Branch Access Report’ and I have to say that there are significant questions about such information as this scant document contains. For one thing, I understand that the post office in Baldwins Lane that you identify as an alternative to Robin Hood, is not in practice open throughout the times that are stated in the Branch Access Report.

Additionally, I would emphasize that there are no longer any banks in the area. No doubt the banks carried out an access exercise of their own without taking the declining number of post offices into consideration. The effects of this are amplified by the fact that the post office network is thinned out unacceptably already. Furthermore, for the ‘alternatives’, any measure of capacity that you employ in this decision should relate to the capacity at peak times rather than being an average capacity.

Then there is the question of buses. Such connections as exist today may very well not be there tomorrow. We have had to fight long and hard to prevent threatened cuts by the bus company. Bus services are also driven by bottom lines. The local residents are seen as profit fodder. You will claim that you often hear this point about bus services. That does not make it invalid and yes, it should be a concern that you weigh. Disconnected analyses are invalid.

What also does not show up in the half page evaluation of the Branch Access Report is the number of elderly people living alone and with no means of private transport to the proposed alternatives. A round trip walking distance of up to two miles may be attempted by some residents over eighty (of whom there are already many) very much at their own risk.

Furthermore, the criterion of being within a mile for a certain percentage of residents does not address the situation in which many pensioners and vulnerable people find themselves. There is another factor that makes the criterion of distance both suspect and dangerous. This is also the possibility that some of the other remaining post offices in Hall green will close of their own accord due to the erosion of their businesses by the enforced changes and withdrawal of business. All of this means that a postal service needs to continue at the Robin Hood Island.

There is very great public concern and opposition to the threatened closure of Hall Green’s Robin Hood Post Office - as you will know from the very extensive petition, signed by thousands of local residents, that has already been submitted to you as part of the local public consultation.

By way of reinforcement, at a recent meeting of the Hall Green Ward Committee, I moved a resolution to the following effect: “Hall Green Ward Committee recognises the vital role of Post Offices serving the local community and as key businesses in local centres and calls for a thorough reconsideration of the closure programme so as to ensure continuity of postal services from Robin Hood Post Office, 1537 Stratford Road, Hall Green.” This view is very widely supported in the local community.

As popular post offices are closed down, more people are inevitably forced to use direct cash payments. This may cut costs for the Treasury, but the fact that it makes life much harder for pensioners and many others seems to be neither here nor there for you or for the Government. But it should be - and you have an opportunity to recognise this by withdrawing the treat of closure that is hanging over Robin Hood Post Office.

I have to say that many people hold serious doubts about the genuineness of the ‘consultation’ on the proposed post office closures and the validity of the calculations that underlie the decisions that seem to have been made. There must be the realistic possibility of reconsideration of these proposals and this scope must be fully exercised if the consultation is to be genuine.

On the question of the validity of the exercise, the House of Commons own Business and Enterprise Committee found that the post office network is actually subsidising Royal Mail’s letter delivery - run as a separate business in the tangled structure within which post offices now have to operate.

Also on the question of the validity of the proposals, people are very surprised when busy post offices such as Robin Hood are faced with enforced closure. I understand that you as an organisation want to manage a smaller number of post offices centrally and that your central administrative costs are used to justify the closure of some profitable offices. But I also understand that you allocate your central costs on a per-office basis rather than according to turnover. This will inevitably result in a false measure of the central saving when a busy office such as Robin Hood is closed. So despite the pain caused, neither you nor the Government will make the reductions in cost that you are claiming.

In view of the crucial importance of this issue in the potentially affected neighbourhoods and the substantial points made above, I trust that having read this letter and considered the arguments, you will reverse your decision to close the Robin Hood Post Office in Hall Green. This would not only bring great relief to the surrounding area but would undoubtedly also increase the standing of The Post Office and result in enhanced business in the future.

I trust also that you will acknowledge this letter and respond to the arguments with due despatch.

Yours sincerely,

Councillor Michael Wilkes

Hall Green

Birmingham

The petition gathered by Robin Hood Post Office has now been sent off with well over 2.000 signatures. Michael also presented the first 1100 signatures to the City Council to gain their support. The current edition of Focus has a petition that we hope you will sign. Representations need to be in by August 4^th. Please also make your views known by letter or by email to: consultation@postoffice.co.uk

There were recent debates on the threatened closures at Hall Green Constituency Committee and Hall Green Ward Committee. Michael moved resolutions at both meetings opposing closures. At the Ward meeting the resolution was: “Hall Green Ward Committee recognises the vital role of Post Offices serving the local community and as key businesses in local centres and calls for a thorough reconsideration of the closure programme so as to ensure continuity of postal services from Robin Hood Post Office, 1537 Stratford Road, Hall Green.”

A similar motion in broader terms was passed by the Constituency Committee, where representatives of the Post Office, as they must have expected, were given a hard time. But they did make it clear that the 2,500 closures were on the instructions of the Government. Postwatch, the knowledgeable but toothless consumer ‘watchdog’, were also present and will no doubt do what they can.

There are serious doubts about the genuineness of the ‘consultation’ and the validity of the calculations that underlie it. The House of Commons own Business and Enterprise Committee found that the post office network is actually subsidising Royal Mail’s letter delivery - run as a separate business in the tangled structure that successive governments have cobbled together and which makes about as much sense as the privatised railway system. Oh for the days of the GPO!

Furthermore, people are surprised that busy post offices face closure. In fact, 90% of closed post offices were profitable as shops. But Post Office Counters want to manage fewer post offices centrally and their central costs are used to justify the closure of profitable offices. But they allocate their costs on a per-office basis rather than by turnover. This results in a false measure of the central saving when a busy office is closed. So despite the pain caused, the Government won’t even make the savings that they trumpet! Thus does gross economic mismanagement run right through the system and affect us all in our everyday lives.

Many apologies for the website being down for so long. This was due to a major hardware failure at the hosting company.

However, phoenix like, we are rising from the ashes!

However, there were still problems with uploading files which prevented us uploading new images for a while. So we had to do a bit of recycling!

All very frustrating with so much campaigning going on! So much catching up to do! Updates to follow shortly. Profuse apologies to all residents once again.

Councillor Michael Wilkes

We regret to say that lottery scams are still doing the rounds in Hall Green (and, we also regret to say, people are still being taken in by them) as are bogus letters, phone calls and emails falsely claiming to be from a bank and other despicable deceits.

Never give any caller your bank details - even if they’re promising to throw in the Eiffel Tower! If it seems too good to be true then you can be sure that it won’t be true!

We also advise not doing business with unsolicited callers at the door. Elderly people are particularly vulnerable to overcharging - or worse. So make it a rule to say no to cold calling whatever form it may take!

As if this latest round of threatened Post Office closures wasn’t enough, the Post Office Card Account (POCA) is also under threat! The Government is soon to determine what is to succeed POCA. There are around four million people who use, and who wish to continue to use, this convenient and simple means of accessing their benefits at their local Post Office each week. We believe most strongly that people should be allowed to keep this choice.

The card account contract is worth around £1 billion over seven yeard. Without the successor account, POCA2, it is estimated that up to an additional three thousand post offices could be forced to close as a result! It is therefore absolutely imperative that this government does not strike yet another blow at our Post Offices, the services that they offer and the local communities that depend on them.

The Government should ensure that POCA2 remains a Post Office product.

You can get a form to send to your Member of Parliament from the Robin Hood Post Office. Alternatively you can print out or download the points to make from our Post Office Campaign Information page on this site or simply write to your MP urging him/her to sign Early Day Motion 1506 and, if they have not been doing so already, in future support post offices at every opportunity in the House of Commons.

Councillors Michael Wilkes, Paula Smith, Jackie Hawthorn and Jerry Evans met recently with the Post Office Manager at Robin Hood to discuss efforts to save this valued Post Office from closure. We are also actively involved in other meetings on the threatened post office closures.

The petition gathered at the Robin Hood Post Office is going very well with well over 1.000 signatures to date. The more signatures the better - and there’s still plenty of time to sign the petition - and to make your views known by letter. To gain its support, Michael presented the first batch of signatures to the City Council on Tuesday (the originals were returned to Robin Hood Post Office for later transmission to the closure ‘consultation team’). For some useful points to check and include in your letters see our new page on this site ’Post Office Campaign Information’.

There will be a discussion of the proposed closures as an agenda item at a meeting of Hall Green Constituency Committee (made up of the councillors from all four wards and chaired by Councillor Jerry Evans) to be held at Hall Green Library, Stratford Road (by Cambrai Drive) at 7-00 p.m. on Tuesday 22^nd July. Representatives of Post Office Ltd. and Postwatch have been invited to attend. The agenda will be available for inspection at local libraries from the 17^th of July. The full set of papers will also be viewable on the City Council’s website at www.birmingham.gov.uk under ‘City Governance’.

We hope that as many residents as possible who are opposed to the threatened closure will be able to come along to take part. In addition, the City Council has organised a scrutiny of the Post Office closures and the Evening Mail has an anti-closure campaign. Our best chance is if we all pull together - as we will try very hard to do.

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!