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.
The picture shows why these things happen - 5 counters and only 2 people in the place. At which point, people ask, why can't this demand be managed by 2 counters in the back of a newsagents?
ReplyDeleteThe same happens with libraries. Nowadays people send emails rather than letters and watch YouTube and Netflix rather than read novels, so there's less demand for post offices and libraries.
The thing is, the world changes so things change with them. When I was younger I knew a man who had been a farrier in his youth. Then farmers stopped using horses and got tractors, so he got a new job. You can't expect everything to be preserved in aspic.