Keep Western Road Crown Post Office (22 Western Road, Hove BN3 1AF) open and don’t “merge” it with Melville Road Post Office.
What can you do?
1. Fill in this online form from Post Office Views – https://www.postofficeviews.co.uk/liveconsultation.php – (or search in the Post Office Views website and enter WESTERN ROAD then fill in the questions
2. Sign this local petition from 38 Degrees – sign here (this is a community independent campaigning group, about lots of local issues).
Why is this important?
Brunswick Town in Hove is a densely-populated area and the Post Office proposed for closure is at the centre of the community, is very well used and has won many awards. Post Office Limited states that alternative provision will be accessible to residents but this provision is a mile away up a hill. We worry about elderly and infirm residents being able to access the new “merged” post office on Melville Road. Our Post Office in Brunswick Town provides a essential public service where people need it and we wholly oppose plans to close it.
Post Offfice’s 12-week consultation closes on 16 September 2015. Comments and questions can be submitted through their online questionnaire at postofficeviews.co.uk, by FREEPOST Your Comments to Post Office Ltd, via email to comments@postoffice.co.uk, via the Customer Helpline on 08457 22 33 44 or Textphone 08457 22 33 55.
In all communications, customers are asked to quote branch code 01090799
Update from a local resident who attended the recent consultations:
While ‘Royal Mail’ was sold off to the public, a network of over 11,000 Post Office branches remained Crown Property – did you know that? …. and that to eliminate subsidies needed to maintain thousands of rural branches, there is a massive campaign under way to cut the network, hand over as many as possible to sub-post-mastery and commercial operators – and turn around, close or merge what is left.
Consultations are now under way regarding the fate of Western Road branch. The declared intention is to merge Western Road and Melville Road branches, but it seems to many local observers that Western Road will be closed (its expired lease has not been renewed).
At the public meeting on 17 August the Post Office PR representative suggested that Melville Road was a suitable alternative, while vocal opponents pointed out that Western Road branch was always busy and could be modified to reduce costs, while Melville Road, too far, too steeply uphill and too hard to reach by public transport, was unimaginable as substitute
The public was invited to comment via the website and many of us did. It remains to be seen what good it does (but trends in communications and transaction technology suggest that post offices, as we know and like them, will soon be just quaint antiquities like steam engines, milk floats and wind-up telephones, the preserve of enthusiasts in hand knitted socks).