Cotswold Chatterblog

Following last Friday’s announcement that all twelve Cotswolds’ Post Offices subject to consultation were to close, Cotswolds MP Geoffrey Clifton-Brown yesterday tried a last ditch personal appeal to Mark Partington the Network Development Manager of Post Office Ltd.

During a hard hitting 35 minute phone conversation the MP reiterated that the closures made no commercial, economic, environmental or social sense. To shut the Beeches or Stratton Post Offices will leave 19,000 people, from 21 villages covering 100 square miles, to use the already overcrowded and innaccessible Crown Post Office in Cirencester.
Mark Partington responded that all the branches earmarked for closure fulfilled the Government’s access criteria and it was not their policy in an urban setting to maintain branches within 1 mile of the main Crown Post Office.

The main gist of the conversation indicated that the Crown Post Office in Cirencester is not profitable but, by forcing business to move from Stratton and The Beeches into a smaller more modern branch, it will become profitable. He admitted that this was bound to cause inconvenience to those forced to travel to use these basic services.

Mr Clifton-Brown said that he was shocked by Post Office Ltd’s lack of business acumen. “I asked Mr Partington how it was that Tesco can maintain four outlets in Cirencester and yet the Post Office is struggling to run one. He did not have a good answer.”
The MP continued ” Furthermore he seemed to think that there is currently no problem at the Cirencester Branch through either overcrowding or the lack of parking space. Even more amazingly he did not believe that things would get any worse following the closure of Stratton and The Beeches. He also reiterated that they were not planning to move The Crown Post Office into W H Smiths”
“It is patently clear to anyone who has used this branch that this is simply not the case and that the consulatation was a complete farce; clearly not one word of the 500 letters I received and passed on has been read by Post Office Ltd nor have they taken note of the strength of feeling expressed at the eight public meetings I organised across the constituency or the protest march through the streets of Cirencester to demonstrate the inadequacy of the Castle Street Branch”

Source : Geoffrey Clifton-Brown MP (Cotswold)

www.geoffreycliftonbrown.com

Related articles:
Post Office Consultation Campaign Heats Up
Cotswolds MP Organises Public Discussion on Post Office Closures
Post Office Ltd Delivers Crippling Closure Programme
Cotswolds MP overwhelmed by response to Post Office Meetings

Tags: cirencester | post office | cotswolds

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