Funeral Farewell to New Cross Post Office

Protestors gathered in the rain on Saturday 10th February for a funereal farewell to the New Cross Post Office, due to close this week and be replaced by a counter within a local convenience store.

From the Press Release:


'From 15 February, New Cross Gate post office services will be run as part of a One Stop shop nearby. New Cross Gate Crown post office is the third London Crown post office to be axed under plans unveiled last year to sell off a total of twelve Crown post offices. Earlier this week campaigners and councillors went to Downing Street to hand in a petition against the closure signed by 3,000 people.




Kirsten Downer, local campaigner said: “We’re concerned about this downgrading of services. There will be fewer counters in the new shop, and vulnerable people will have to queue past lottery tickets and alcohol. There are no guarantees of a long term service under a private provider – up the road in Deptford post office services are in the back of a shop which has since closed, and it looks like a junk shop. How can it be right that the Post Office, a government company with a duty to act in the public interest, can pay its CEO £600,000 while lecturing local communities about the need to cut costs?”'


Among other things, there will be a loss of the free cashpoint at the post office, compounding the previous loss of cashpoint at the adjacent ex-Barclays Bank.

'You can't stamp us out' - Save New Cross post office protest

A good turn out this morning for the protest to launch the Save New Cross Post Office campaign. As mentioned here before, the busy community facility is threatened with closure.

EastLondonLines reports, 37 Post Offices around the country are under threat, with the Communication Workers Union estimating the loss of around 300 staff on top of 2,000 post office workers who lost their jobs in 2016.

Save New Cross Gate Post Office

A campaign has been launched to save New Cross Gate post office. There's a petition which states the case clearly:

'On the 10th January 2017 the Post Office Limited proposed to close 93 Post Offices. Among those they wish to close is New Cross Gate Post Office located at 199/205 New Cross Road, SE14 5DH.

New Cross gate Post Office provides a vital service to the local community and beyond, and to lose such services will gravely impact those who need this local post office most. Among those will be pensioners and vulnerable people. This is a high demand, busy and heavily utilised Post Office.

New Cross Gate Post Office is located in a central location in New Cross, at a major public bus interchange, where for local savers there is no alternative banking facilities.  It is used by a wide demographic of ages for postal services, saving, making payments, currency, passports service, as well as many other key services. In this part of New Cross there is no other banking or saving institutions, which adds to reason why the Post Office at New Cross Gate would be a severe loss.

We the undersigned call on Paula Vennells, Chief Executive of Post Office Limited, to revoke  the plans to close the vital New Cross Gate Post Office'.

On Saturday 28th January the campaign will be publicly launched with a demonstration outside the Post Office from 10 am to 11 am.