Council Turns To Higher Power To Save Local Post Offices

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Vicar of St Mary's agrees to look at a limited service from the Brewer Building

Wandsworth Council has joined forces with two local organisations in a bid to safeguard threatened post office services in Putney and Battersea.

The council is working with bosses at the Covent Garden Market Authority and also with church authorities in Putney to preserve some post office services in the area that are facing the axe.

The council will now seek an urgent meeting with Post Office chiefs to see if these services can be saved.

Giles Fraser the Vicar of St Mary's Putney, has agreed to explore options to run a limited counter service for customers who face losing two sub-post offices at 209 Lower Richmond Road and 279 Putney Bridge Road.

Under the proposals, people would be able to carry out a number of transactions at the church's Brewer Building, including posting parcels and items for recorded delivery. The Brewer Building is already home to a thriving and busy café and a small post office counter offering a limited range of services could be accommodated here.

Wandsworth's deputy leader Cllr Maurice Heaster said the town hall and its partners were keen to make the ideas work.

Giles Fraser, Vicar of St Mary's, said: "The Brewer building is equidistant between the two Putney closures and could provide some services - perhaps the 'Post Office Lite' that Post Office chiefs have been talking about recently. In any event the church is passionate about trying to find ways to address the very real concerns of this community about these closures and their impact on the elderly and vulnerable."

"We think both these proposals could be very successful and offer local residents and businesses continued post office counter services at a time when the local network is shrinking rapidly. Much will depend on the attitude of the Post Office. We have come up with a solution that would lessen the impact of their local closure programme but we need to persuade them to support it, but postal chiefs will need to be flexible and show a willingness to share costs. What we cannot have is a situation where the burden falls solely on council tax payers and the businesses at Covent Garden."

The chief executive of the Covent Garden Market Authority Jan Lloyd added: " The Post Office has ignored the special circumstances facing the businesses at the market and our aspirations to develop this site. I am delighted to enter a partnership with the council and businesses to retain this vital service."  

The Post Office has already dismissed the arguments put forward by the community to save the eight local post offices that are currently facing the axe, and unless ministers intervene, these closures now look likely to proceed.

The full list of branches that are now scheduled to close are 258 Balham High Road; 268 Battersea Park Road; 179 Garratt Lane; 209 Lower Richmond Road; 274 Mitcham Lane; New Covent Garden Market; 279 Putney Bridge Road and 318 Trinity Road.

In all 22 post office have been lost in the past five years – equivalent to half the borough's network.

For more information on the council's campaign against local post office closures, visit
www.wandsworth.gov.uk/postoffices.

May 23, 2008