more … ]]> After all our previous efforts, the council has finally moved the Winchester consultation meeting for the Local Development Framework to the Guildhall.

This means that there now spaces available on January 17th.

As mentioned previously, this is a hugely important paper for the future of the Winchester area setting out the strategy for major change across the District over the next twenty years – particularly in terms of planning and housing. It’s essential that anyone who is interested should be able to get a place in one of the consultation meetings.

There’s been an incredible level of interest. The meetings in Alresford, Winchester and Wickham have had to be moved to larger buildings and a new meeting has been set up in Littleton.

You can book a place at any of the remaining meetings via this online form.

more … ]]> Well now we know…

After all the effort people made across Hampshire to argue for their local post offices, almost nothing has changed. Only one Post Office (Goodworth Clatford, near Andover) managed to get a reprieve. A branch in Whitbury which had been planned for outreach is being closed instead.

Here in the new Winchester constituency, all the efforts by local people have had some effect: the Littleton Post Office has managed to get a three month stay of execution until April 9th, 2008 to discuss whether some form of local funding could be arranged in order to keep the post office open. The Chandler’s Ford post office is being kept open until a replacement for the Fryern Hill post office has been found. The decision to replace Micheldever with an outreach service has gone to Postwatch for further discussion: we should see a plan shortly. Shawford will be closing within the next four weeks.

The fundamental issue remains the central Government decision to cut the national number of post offices by 2,500. As local people repeatedly made clear in their letters and submissions, these closures will have a serious impact on the elderly and vulnerable groups. It is very disappointing that all the input given by local people has had such a relatively small impact.

Full details of the closure decisions, as published on the Post Office website, are as follows:

Post Office® Chandler’s Ford branch

Respondents’ main concerns related to the impact of any change on the local community, particularly elderly people; the distance to alternative branches; the fact that the nearestalternative branch at Fryern Hill is currently closed, and proposals for future development in the area.
A review confirmed that there are two alternative branches within a mile of Chandlers Ford, the nearest alternative branch being Fryern Hill, which is temporarily closed – a situation that would be resolved before any closure of Chandlers Ford branch was undertaken. The second is Velmore.
While new developments are planned for the area, we still do not consider it feasible that three Post Office branches could be operated in a viable and therefore, sustainable way in the future.
Taking these and all other relevant factors into account, our decision is to proceed with the closure of Post Office® Chandlers Ford branch. No such closure will take place until a new Fryern Hill branch is in place.

Post Office® Littleton branch

During the local public consultation, the main comments received in respect of this branch related to vulnerable customer groups, the availability of parking at alternative branches and the ability of those branches to absorb additional customers. A proposal was also received from the local community regarding local funding for a service offering in the area.
We have carried out a further check on parking and can confirm that parking is available at both alternative branches. Service provision at those branches will also be revised where necessary.
Having considered this and all other relevant factors, Post Office Ltd has decided to confirm the closure of this branch. However, our view is that the proposal for local funding was sufficiently cogent that it is worth investigating further whether it may provide a viable basis for the provision of some form of local service in the area. Post Office Ltd will now consider further the proposal to assess its viability. In the meantime, to reduce disruption should a new locally funded service be established, Post Office Ltd has decided to delay the implementation of the closure of this branch by three months to 9th April 2008.

Post Office® Shawford branch

A relatively small amount of correspondence was received during the local public consultation period in relation to this branch.
A review has, nevertheless, been conducted and has confirmed, amongst other things, that customer levels at this branch are very low. Taking all relevant factors into consideration our final decision is to proceed with the closure of Post Office® Shawford branch.

Micheldever submitted for further review by Postwatch

Postwatch is working with Post Office Ltd and local communities throughout the programme to help secure the best possible outcome for customers.
Postwatch and Post Office Ltd have agreed a Memorandum of Understanding, which sets out in detail the role Postwatch will play in the Programme. Where Postwatch thinks Post Office Ltd’s proposals are unsatisfactory, it will work with local communities and Post Office Ltd to address these problems.
Where Postwatch can show, in respect of an individual branch, Post Office Ltd has not given due consideration to material evidence received during the public consultation in coming to its decision or where evidence emerges from the consultation that the proposal for that branch does not meet the Government’s policy requirements, there is an agreed review mechanism between Postwatch and Post Office Ltd. It is important to note that Postwatch does not have a power of veto on Post Office Ltd’s decisions.
We have made a decision in principle to proceed with the remaining eight Outreach proposals subject to final agreement with Postwatch. Post Office Ltd is now working on finalising the details of the specific solution that replaces each branch; this information will be published shortly.

• Post Office® East Meon branch, East Meon Stores, High Street, East Meon, Petersfield, GU32 1NW
• Post Office® East Tisted branch, Station Road, East Tisted, Alton, GU34 3QP
• Post Office® Froxfield branch, 13 Dellfield, Froxfield, Petersfield, GU32 1EH
• Post Office® Lockerley branch, Lockerley Green, Romsey, SO51 0JN
• Post Office® Micheldever branch, Church Street, Micheldever, Winchester, SO21 3DB
• Post Office® St Mary Bourne branch, Bourne Meadow, St Mary Bourne, Andover, SP11 6BE
• Post Office® West Tytherley branch, West Tytherley, Salisbury, SP5 1NF
• Post Office® West Meon branch, High Street, West Meon, Petersfield, GU32 1LJ

more … ]]> After all our pressure back in December, the good news is that there is now going to be an extra consultation workshop for the City Council’s Local Development Framework in Littleton Village Hall.

But the two other consultations in the new Winchester Constituency – in Alresford and Winchester’s Discovery Centre are already fully booked out – with 9 or more days to go before the meeting itself.

We still need at least one more consultation in the City itself. The Local Development Framework, while sounding boring, has huge implications for our city over the next 20 years.

As I said back in December:

The proposals on the table (including an effective assumption in favour of developing on Barton Farm, Abbots Barton and Pitt Manor, and including possible further expansion north and east of the current Barton Farm site, on Teg Down, on Bushfield Camp and further into Pitt Manor Farm) are going to be hugely controversial across the city and also have a potentially huge impact in areas outside the city, such as Oliver’s Battery, Badger Farm, Kings Worthy and Compton.

We urgently need more consultation meetings to ensure that local people’s voices are properly heard.

more … ]]>

The final deadline for submitting responses to the Post Office Closure programme consultation for Hampshire & the Isle of Wight finished on Monday – with detailed responses submitted by ourselves and others for most of the post offices in the local area.

However, all this detailed work mustn’t let us lose sight of the fact that ultimately these closures stem from a Government decision backed by Gordon Brown. The Government decided to close these 2,500 post offices. Post Office Management are just administering a government decision. That’s why I was in Downing Street today with Chris Huhne MP, Sandra Gidley MP and Councillor Kelsie Learney presenting the petitions we collected opposing the closure.

Post Offices are a vital lifeline in our area (and most other areas), especially for pensioners and people who don’t have easy access to transport. In rural areas they are often the last shop in the village.

more … ]]> Just back from an excellent meeting about Littleton Post Office in Littleton Village Hall – exceptionally well chaired – and very constructive. Around 200 people were there to question two senior post office managers about the plans to close Littleton Post Office.

A wide range of very strong points were made challenging the assumptions behind the proposed closure – particularly the assumptions made by the Post Office about how easy it would be for people using public transport to get from Littleton to Stoney Lane, the assumptions about how easy it is to get there on foot and the assumptions about how easy it would be for people who use cars to park and use the Post Office (particularly while Waitrose is being built).

Someone asked the question about what would happen if the Stoney Lane Co-op went under as a result of Waitrose opening – a particularly apposite question given the recent closure of the Co-op owned Alldays in Chandler’s Ford and the resultant loss of the Post Office. (In practice, the experience from Chandler’s Ford is that they would be compelled to find a replacement – but it takes time – and if something similar happened to Stoney Lane, there would almost certainly be no Post Office in Weeke for several months).

Another rich vein of questioning related to how the head office costs are allocated to sub-post-offices – and whether local funding could have a role in keeping the post office open. Are 10,000 out of 14,000 sub-post-offices really unprofitable – or does it reflect the way they allocate costs between Post Offices – or between the Royal Mail and the Post Office? (Once this line of questioning got going, someone warned the post office spokespeople that there are a lot of accountants in Littleton!) How much subsidy would it really take to keep the Post Office open? Anyone who’s spent time in corporate life knows how changes in accounting policy can have a dramatic effect on the apparent profitability of a given business unit.

I’d also like to see further exploration of how Post Offices could be used as general access points for all government services – not just national services – but local services as well. Are there other businesses or services (including charities) that the post office could front? I discussed this briefly with Post Office management at the end of the meeting. There were some trials on this at the start of the decade, but the ones I’ve found seem to have restricted themselves mainly to information provision rather than actually providing services (for example, payments handling or document checking). This is not a question we can answer by the end of the consultation, but is definitely a policy idea I intend to keep working at.

There was also a discussion about the plan to put the Post Office into Smiths. The Post Office made it clear how forcefully Mark Oaten had stated his concerns during the recent meeting I attended with them in the House of Commons. Everyone who spoke at the meeting was in a very similar place.

Finally though, once we cut through all the arguments about the assumptions behind closure, there remained a core issue. Why are we cutting back our post office network so sharply in the first place? Many speakers highlighted the social role of the post office and the sub-postmaster or (in Littleton’s case) sub-postmistress. In many cases (including Littleton) loss of the post office means the loss of the last shop in the village. Combined with the Conservatives’ brutal cuts in local public transport, it leaves the elderly, the young and those without access to cars more isolated than ever. The chair of the meeting rightly captured and dealt with this issue at the beginning of the meeting so that it didn’t throw the rest of the meeting off track – but no-one should underestimate the undercurrent of real anger there was towards the policies that have led to the threatened closure of Littleton Post Office in the first place.

more … ]]> We’ve now got the list of Post Offices for closure in the new Winchester & Chandler’s Ford constituency.

The Post Offices proposed for closure are:

• Littleton
• Shawford
• Bournemouth Road, Chandler’s Ford

In addition, Micheldever has been proposed for closure and replacement by an ‘outreach service‘ with local people being consulted on which kind of outreach they want.

People opposed to the closures – or who want to have their say on which method of outreach they prefer – can write to:

Tim Nickolls
Network Development Manager
C/o National Consultation Team
FREEPOST CONSULTATION TEAM

or email consultation@postoffice.co.uk.

The more detailed the argument against the Post Office’s analysis behind their proposal, the better.

We are going to be campaigning very hard against these closures in the affected areas. To be successful, we need to make a strong case for each post office about how seriously closure will affect the local community – and, in particular, highlight any mistakes in their assumptions. The most important thing that people can do is write to the Post Office and clearly explain how the loss of the post office is going to affect them – particularly if people are dependent on public transport and there are issues in accessing alternative sites.

The real problem here is the Government. They’re the ones who are forcing the Post Office to close 2,500 post offices. And while it’s true that many people prefer accessing post office services via the internet or other shops, the problem is the impact on the elderly and those who find it hard to access any alternatives.

Rather than having the Government take business away from the post office, there’s a clear opportunity for both the Government and local Councils to use local post offices as local points of contact – putting more business through post offices to help sustain the network.