Post Offices

Busy few days. Saturday had an Association lunch (60 people) and today had a family lunch with my parents-in-law. I also sing in the choir of Kingston Parish Church and this was our first Sunday back after the Summer hols.

The bad news is the proposed closure of three post offices in Kingston & Surbiton; one in Old Malden and two in Berrylands (Chiltern Drive and Berrylands Road). The really crazy closures are those of Old Malden and Berrylands Road, which both serve the elderly communities around them.

We will of course fight this closure as it is clearly mad. Given these campaigns are sometimes(though rarely) won it does make me think though that maybe the solution should be to make other provision, maybe from the Council, as a service to their residents. Stamps can now be purchased anywhere but what of the community feeling for the elderly pensioner who does not want their pension paid into a bank account?

One would hope that this type of campaign could be cross party, as no one agrees with the closure, but I suppose that will not happen. Interestingly the Lib Dems policy on the Post Office is to privatise it; something neither the Thatcher or Major Governments attempted. Trouble with the Lib Dem policy is that the reason they are closing thse Post Offices is they are losing money. Do the Lib Dems believe that privatising them will make them less likely to close non profitable Post Offices?

I believe that we need to find a new way of providing community services that are truly local and local authorities need to be given the power to innovate and attempt a birth of a new type of lcoal delivery of services.