"Our Post Offices are vital community resources that we all use."
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Putney, Roehampton and Southfields MP Justine Greening has slammed plans by the Post Office and Government to close a further two post offices in Putney. The closures are the second wave of post office closures since 2003, when Justine originally campaigned to keep post offices open in Tildesley Road, Montfort Place and Revelstoke Road.
The post offices proposed for closure are on 209 Lower Richmond Road and 279 Putney Bridge Road and would mean that the area has lost over half its post offices since 2003.
Justine said: "Our Post Offices are vital community resources that we all use. I have already met with Post Office management to discuss these latest proposals and express my concerns. I've also met with Mr Patel who runs the Lower Richmond Road post office (pictured below)to discuss his concerns about the closure plans, which are announced at the very time he's investing money in modernising his shop.
The Post Office senior management say that users of both post offices planned for closure can use the main Putney post office, but I already have constituents complaining about the queues in the post office, so having an extra 50% more customers will be impossible for them to deal with.
Justine will also be pressing Ministers to ask them whether government can better support and bring new business to local post offices to help save the network. Justine says "Post Offices that have been a viable part of the network for years, don't suddenely become loss making without reason. Part of the problem has been the Department for Work and Pensions forcing pensioners to have pensions paid directly into bank accounts and Ministers' decision to have TV Licence renewals taken away from the Post Office. Both these decisions have fundamentally undermined the Post Office's network and led to the closures we're seeing proposed today."
Residents have until 2 April to respond and can contact the Post Office on www.postoffice.co.uk/networkchange or write to Post Office Ltd at Freepost Consultation (no stamp required), or email consultation@postoffice.co.uk.
Justine says "These plans are badly thought through and I very much hope that residents who are concerned about losing these facilities have their say.
March 14, 2008