The Bristow Blog

Evening Standard Praises H&F on Post Office campaign

Following the remarkable victory in saving half the borough's Post Office under the axe - despite just 7 being saved across London - the campaign to bring back a Post Office in W14 continues.

Council & Residents save borough Post Offices

Three of the six post offices threatened with closure in Hammersmith and Fulham have been saved, thanks to a joint campaign by residents and the council.

The Starch Green sub-post office branch at 7 King’s Parade in Askew Road, W6, the Kenyon Street branch in Fulham and the branch at 146 Shepherds Bush Road, W6 will remain open.

Formal notification was given last week by Post Office Ltd that these three branches are among the seven across London that have been saved from closure.  It is amazing that out of the seven saved in London - nearly half are in Hammersmith & Fulham.  Our borough has seen closure after closure in recent years - pleas from local residents fell on deaf ears.  Our voice has finally been heard.  The latest closure plans appear to have been a step too far even for the Post Office!

With the help of local residents, we did our homework and presented Post Office Ltd with a dossier which they simply couldn’t argue with.  When we called them in for our public meeting on March 19, they confessed that they did not know about the fifty flats for blind and partially-sighted residents at Pocklington Lodge, near the Askew Road branch.

The plans to rip the heart out of the borough by axing six post office sub-branches were robustly challenged by the council. As well as our formal submission, we have pursued a very high profile campaign with placards and petitions.  We also hosted the public meeting in Hammersmith Town Hall.

Sadly, three branches remain on the chopping block. They are: 780 Fulham Road, 68 Askew Road and 88 Goldhawk Road.

We will continue to press Post Office Ltd to look at alternatives such as a move into our libraries. These services are essential, especially to the elderly and disabled, and we will do everything we can to save them.

H&F Council respond to the Post Office about closures

Lats week the council sent our official submission to their plans to close 6 Post Offices in our borough and the secret 7th closure at Olympia

Please see - Download 080401_Post_Office_Closures_response_tcm21-95672.pdf

We have also made a youtube video of the Post Office meeting:

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Post Office public meeting

Some pictures below from the Post Office public meeting organised by Hammersmith & Fulham council.  The message from residents, the council, and local MPs was:

Keep our post offices open!

In order:

• Me (no prizes for guessing that)
• Greg Hands MP (Hammersmith & Fulham)
• Shaun Bailey (Conservative Candidate for Hammersmith)
• Cllr Stephen Greenhalgh (leader of the council)

Video of David Cameron's visit to Kenyon Street post office

David Cameron in Hammersmith & Fulham campaiging against Post Office closures

David Cameron today came to Hammersmith & Fulham to see for himself the threat to our post office network.  He visted the threatened branch at number 58 Kenyon Street, Fulham.

We discussed the council campaign, our public meeting, petition, and our proposal to use council facilities to keep post office branches open.

The Post Office claim that they cannot keep the network going as it is.  We are offering council premises such as libraries in the hope we can keep functioning branches running.

Our public meeting to protest against post office closures will take place tomorrow evening at 7pm - Hammersmith Town Hall. 

Meeting with the Post Office - sharing facilities?

On Tuesday, together with the leader of the council, Stephen Greenhalgh, and council officers, I met with officials from the Post Office to discuss branch closures in Hammersmith & Fulham and ways the council might be able to help and share facilities.  It is absolutely vital that we keep open many of these post office branches that can be a lifeline to many of our local residents.

We certainly gave the Post Office plenty to think about.  We reiterated our opposition to the closure programme in the strongest possible terms.

Morever, if some of these closures go ahead we offered the use of council facilities, such as libraries, to keep some of these branches open.  One possibility for example could be locating the closed Hammersmith Road/North End Road office in Barons Court library.  This would end the farce which is the W14 postcode - serving 35,000 residents - being without a post office.

Discussions are still in early stages but we are optimistic.  I shall keep residents informed about our campaign.

Slaughter exposed on Post Offices!

Andrew Slaughter's (Ealing Acton MP) hypocrisy of the Post Office closures he voted for has been picked up by the national press.  Although we welcome all supporters of our campaign in H&F it is a bit rich Slaughter trying to take credit for the campaign and feigning outrage when he personally voted for the closures in the House of Commons.

What's more Slaughter will not put his money where his mouth is and resign as an aide to a Minister in the very department closing the offices:

Shaun Bailey, the 36-year-old black community worker, is already making waves in his campaign to become Conservative MP for Hammersmith at the next general election.

Now he has branded Andrew Slaughter, his Labour opponent and currently MP for Ealing Acton and Shepherds Bush, "a hypocrite" on the thorny issue of post office closures.

For the man disparagingly known by some Tory MPs as "Andrew S. Laughter" has been campaigning against local post office closures while remaining as a parliamentary aide to Lord Jones of Birmingham at the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform - the very department responsible for the closure programme.

"Local residents are being conned," says Mr Bailey. "Mr Slaughter is happy to go about telling local residents that he wants to save local post offices, while behind the scenes he is the one closing them. It would appear that he would rather keep his nice government job than look out for local residents and communities.

"This hypocrisy speaks volumes about the Labour Party, who are treating us, the local residents, with contempt.

"I am fighting to ensure the closures aren't carried out, full stop. No ifs, no buts."

Slaughter was unavailable for comment.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2008/03/11/dp1101.xml#head1

W14 - the only postcode in London without a Post Office?

If there was one piece of evidence that post office branch closure programme in Hammersmith & Fulham had gone too far that was defining, it is the revelation that the entire postal district of W14 is without a post office.

This is the first time an entire London postcode has been left without a single post office since the capital was split into districts in 1857.  Over 35,000 people are served by this post office.  A population similar to Boston in Lincolnshire and Canterbury.

The Olympia post closure is not included in 6 official Hammersmith & Fulham branch closures - it happened when Costcutters went out business and the Post Office sat on their hands.

However, the Post Office still own the Blythe Road site where a branch closed a few years ago.  The council is challenging the post office to re-open this branch!  They have a duty to provide a service.

Try as he might - it is no good Andrew Slaughter, Ealing/Acton MP, jumping on this bandwagon.  Last year he voted to close 2,500 post offices nationwide in the House of Commons.  Local people will judge MPs by their actions!

You can read the Commons motion to save local post offices, which Mr Slaughter opposed, here http://www.publicwhip.org.uk/division.php?date=2007-01-10&number=22&mpn=Andrew_Slaughter&mpc=Ealing%2C+Acton+%26amp%3B+Shepherd%26%2339%3Bs+Bush 

The Post Office is decimating London

The Post Office is closing 6 branches across Hammersmith & Fulham as part of their plans to close 169 branches across London. 

This now seems to be as regular as the tides.  Every year a new round of post office closures in Hammersmith & Fulham is announced by the Post Office in the name of efficiency.  There is a consultation where everyone unites in opposition and the Post Office takes no notice whatsoever. 

The six branches set for the chop are:

1. Askew Road, 68 Askew Road, London, W12 9BJ
2. Goldhawk Road, 88 Goldhawk Road, London, W12 8HD
3. Starch Green, 7 Kings Parade, Askew Road, Starch Green, London, W12 9BA
4. Kenyon Street, 58 Kenyon Street, Fulham, London, SW6 6LB
5. Fulham Road, 780 Fulham Road, London, SW6 5SL
6. Shepherds Bush Road, 146 Shepherds Bush Road, Hammersmith, London, W6 7PB

Additionally, the post office at Costcutters at the top end of North End Road is also closed and the Post Office have not given a date when it will (or if it will) reopen.

Hammersmith & Fulham Council will lead the opposition to these plans - we will also look to see if we can work with the Post Office and perhaps share facilities and service outlets.

And guess what the Government response is to this?  I wrote to the Minister responsible for the Post Office, Pat McFadden a few weeks ago asking if we could access the accounts of these so called 'failing' post offices to see if the council could work with them and deliver a profitable service.  Greg Hands put down a parliamentary question asking the Minister what consideration he had given to my letter - the response? 

"I have seen the letter from Councillor Paul Bristow of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham Council and would recommend that the Council contact Post Office Ltd to discuss their concerns and proposals for future service provision in the Borough"

Go away was the general gist of it....