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Chandlers Ford Post Office

Fryern Post Office to close till January

The Fryern Hill Post Office in Chandler’s Ford will close at 1 p.m. today.

The Sub-Postmaster resigned last Tuesday. The Post Office put in a temporary sub-postmaster – but the current premises are being withdrawn from 1 p.m. today Wednesday.

This is all a big surprise to everyone and incredibly short notice. I spoke to post office management as soon as I heard and they say this is only a temporary closure. They have a plan for a replacement by January. I asked, but it doesn’t look like it’s going to be possible to get a temporary post office in the meantime – for example in the Waitrose car park (although I’ve spoken to Eastleigh Borough Council to see what they might be able to do to help). In the meantime the Post Office are suggesting people go to nearby post offices such as the one in Bournemouth Road instead.

The irony is that the post office are trying to close Bournemouth Road. What would they have done if this had happened a few months later?

Categories
Tower Arts Centre Video Winchester

Tower Arts – Bob Dylan speaks out!

Alistair Marsden of the Tower Arts Campaign and Bob Dylan have just produced the following awesome video about the Tower meeting at the Guildhall on November 1st:

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20s plenty Environment Speeding Winchester

Best place to live in England

I’ve just watched the ‘Location, Location, Location’ programme about the ten best places to live in Britain – and Winchester has dropped to number two behind Edinburgh.

However, we’re still the best place to live in England so I guess we shouldn’t feel too down!

I watched the show and we lost points for our carbon emissions and our road safety – two areas we’ve been campaigning on for quite some time.

Aside from our national commitments to a zero carbon Britain, I’ve already offered my time to Winchester Action on Climate Change and will be continuing with our campaign for proper 20 mph speed limits outside schools and in residential areas that want them.

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Chandlers Ford Littleton Post Office Shawford

Post Office Closures

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.

Categories
Litter Winchester

Sometimes it’s just better to just get on with things…

At the meeting of North Stanmore Residents Association on October 8, several residents mentioned problem with litters on the path between Waynflete Place and Selbourne Place.

Alexis Fall and Lucille Thompson are pushing the council to clear the path regularly. I went along with them to have a look and we all thought – why wait – let’s clear it up now! Twenty minutes later it was all done.

Alexis Fall and Lucille Thompson litterpicking in Stanmore

(Despite the picture, I can promise that I did my share too – it’s just that one of us had to take the photo!)

The first time I went out with Winchester Litterpickers, I ended up buying my own litter picker (it costs a fiver), and it’s very useful for this kind of thing.

It doesn’t mean that we won’t be pushing for the path to be cleared when the council clears litter in the surrounding areas – but it also made no sense to leave loads of litter in place when we had the tools to hand to get rid of it!