|
The Post Office proposes to close the sub-post office at Gislingham, the nearest branch to Thornham Magna, some time after 1 August. If this happens, the Village Store will also close. Suggested alternatives (see announcement on view at Gislingham) are further away and offer restricted opening hours. It is not at all certain that in Gislingham the pub will be available, as the Post Office envisages, for 9 hours weekly to replace 45 hours at the Post Office. No reasons have been given for selecting Gislingham.
A period of consultation ends on 2 June. It is understood that
letters, especially from communities as a whole, are most likely to
influence the outcome. The Thornham Magna Village Meeting is scheduled
for 3 June. To meet the deadline, a draft letter is therefore attached
and Villagers are strongly requested to let Chloe Bennett, Village
Clerk, know their views on it before 15 May. If 15 or more (a normal
attendance at a Village meeting) support sending the letter, it will be
issued in the name of the village. To contact Chloe, please drop a note
in her letterbox at Dove House, The Street or use her Email address:
This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
Individual letters should be addressed to
Laura Tarling
Network Development Manager
Post Office Ltd
FREEPOST CONSULTATION TEAM
or Email:
This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
Copies also to FREEPOST, POSTWATCH, the consumer interest champion.
DRAFT LETTER FROM THORNHAM MAGNA VILLAGE MEETING
To
NETWORK DEVELOPMENT MANAGER, POST OFFICE
The Thornham Magna Village Meeting wishes to oppose the Post Office proposal to permanently close the Post Office at Gislingham. This is of immediate concern to residents in this village as in recent years closure of Post Offices here and in other neighbouring villages has left Gislingham as the nearest Post Office to us. It gives us good service in all aspects of sub-Post Office business, open 45 hours a week in a modern building which also houses a good Village Store which would close if the Post Office goes.
The Post Office has given no grounds at all for selecting Gislingham for closure as part of its wide reduction of branches. The only general ground mentioned is the national decline in the use of Post Ofices. Gislingham is actually an exception to this trend, numbers of users rising healthily. We would like strongly to register our protest that, during this period designated for public consultation, we are given no arguments from the Post Office side for their proposed action. Effectively, this leaves us fighting in the dark, in disregard of Freedom of Information legislation.
The chief reason why Gislingham should not close is that it is the natural hub of an area including nine villages, of which it is by far the largest (population over 1200). This was presumably the view of the Post Office when it gave support only 2 years ago to equipping the new building. Alternative postal services offered in Gislingham itself (9 hours a week in the pub) would be particularly awkward for customers coming from other places. Moreover, the availability of this alternative is in doubt with a pending sale of the premises in question. The Post Office may hold the view that the combination of this branch with the village store is not their concern: however, as Post Office policy depends on HM Government policy, such a disclaimer would be unacceptable in terms of Joined Up Government. The Post Office and Village Store together provide an important service to all the communities in the area. There are no alternative stores and no such substantial postal services in any of the places put forward by the Network Development Manager. For Thornham Magna residents, distances to comparable services would be much greater and involve use of main roads—unhelpful to efforts on environmental grounds to use bicycles rather than cars.
We urgently ask that our views be taken fully into account. When we are informed of Post Office reasoning, we shall be glad to address any points made. Closing the Gislingham Post Office would impoverish rural life in this area.
|
