Save Our Post Offices

Weston-super-Mare MP John Penrose will be leading a campaign to save local Post Offices from the chop after it was announced that six Post Offices in the local area face closure as part of the Post Office’s Network Change Programme.

The Post Offices, Church Road, Kewstoke, Loxton, North Worle, Severn Road and Uphill, have all been notified that they have been proposed for closure in the Area Plan Proposal for Bristol and Somerset.

The announcement follows the Government’s decision to shrink the UK’s Post Office Network by 2,500 branches, a cut of over 17% or one sixth. Since 1999 the Government has closed five Post Offices in Weston-super-Mare and the villages, and the new plans could potentially see the remaining 27 cut to 21, well above the national closure rate at 22.3%.

John Penrose has been rallying behind local subpostmasters who are outraged at the decision which will destroy their businesses and have a serious impact on their lives as well as the communities they serve. Two months ago he was involved with Hutton campaigners who successfully raised a 1,000 name petition on this issue, and whose local post office has not now been included in the list of those under threat.

Mr Penrose said:

“Post Offices are the heart of our local community and in some of our villages like Kewstoke they are the only shop. If these closures go ahead, it will be a hammer blow to community life.

“Some people would have to travel up to three miles to get to their nearest Post Office. For many in the community, who can neither afford to travel or who are too vulnerable to travel more than a short way by foot, this is impossible.

“Pensioners are probably going to be hardest hit. It will be difficult to collect their pensions as not everyone has a bank account or a computer to arrange payments online. For many it will mean isolation from their local communities and problems with day to day essentials like shopping and independent living”.

Post Office Ltd. has announced that there will be a public consultation of the Area Plan Proposal for Bristol and Somerset and invites local people to take part. It is set to begin on 26th February 2008 and lasts for six weeks.

Mr Penrose said:

“I will be working with the post masters and mistresses in the post offices that are under threat, together with their local communities, to fight these closures wherever we can. It won't be easy, and we won't win them all, but we can't just sit back and do nothing. I'd urge local people either to sign one of the many petitions that are going around the affected areas or add their name to the one below"

Further details of the Post Office’s Network Change Programme can be found here.

Click here to add your name to John Penrose’s Petition