Today is June 10th, the day that the Post Office unveil their proposals for our area. According to Andrew Bingham, prospective Conservative candidate for the area, the proposals will be published on their website at http://www.hpca.co.uk/ as soon as they are available. I proffer this address as the only one I am aware of that offers to provide the said information and not out of any political bias. You may notice from our description at the head of the blog that we are an independent organisation with no political affiliation.
Given that postal workers and their union the C.W.U. took the step of delivering thousands of the above leaflet to households in the area, during the last week, it seems fairly obvious, even before the formal announcement, that Hadfield Post Office, at least the Sorting Office aspect of it, is set for imminent closure.
It will take a huge backlash from the public backed up by some action from the postal workers themselves and some leverage from our local politicians to reverse this purely financial decision.
It seems to me that there are three issues at stake here:
1. The level of service being provided is set to diminish.
2. Postal workers, (most of whom live in and around the Hadfield area) will be in the ridiculous situation of having to travel to a different county in order to get to work. At this time of morning public transport is not even available. They will then be driven back to Hadfield to deliver their local round!
One presumes they will then be driven back to Hyde to pick up their cars, so they can drive back to Hadfield!!
Yes it beggars belief yet seems to be symptomatic of the crazy world we live in, where very little makes any sense at all unless it is viewed from a purely financial perspective.
3. The future of Hadfield Post Office itself is at stake.
I will deal with these issues in turn but first let's look at what the politicians say.
First leaflet through the door, even before the one above (and perhaps therefore the first one to know?) came from Tom Levitt. Admittedly his mention of local Post Offices came in a general leaflet in the aftermath of May election disaster but this is what he has to say:
"Continuing to campaign and support our local Post Offices remains a top priority (his own emphasis). That's why I support the government's investment of £1.7 billion into the Post Office Network, unlike the Tories who admit they would not match or support such an investment. This threatens 7,500 post offices with closure! Don't believe the Tories opportunistic warm words on funding. Their sums never add up; one minute they promise tax cuts, the next more money for public services - you can't have both."
Mr Bingham's response in a leaflet entitled 'High Peak matters' came just a couple of days after the C.W.U. notified us that Royal Mail intended to close the Sorting Office in 90 days time. Quick work Andrew.
Now whilst I don't often agree with Tom Levitt, I have to admit that the leaflet which shows Andrew Bingham outside a local Post Office and a caption underneath that reads 'Andrew Bingham outside a local Post Office' is nothing if not opportunistic.
Nevertheless, he does go on to make some good factual points. For starters Labour have already closed 2500 Post Offices across the country, with a further 4,000 having an uncertain future. (I guess he means that 2500 have closed whilst the government has sat back and watched without intervening in any way. Technically speaking it is the Royal Mail not the government itself that closes Post Offices but point taken).
He also claims that whilst the Conservatives proposed a halt to the closure programme, Tom Levitt, who described the future of Post Offices as 'bleak' during a House of Commons debate, refused to support the halt.
The Tory solution is to give Post Offices more opportunity, by extending the range of services they can offer, enabling them to operate on equal terms and thus to compete and survive.
That's the story so far but to understand where it leaves us, let's return to the three issues I listed above:
1. Service delivery. This will clearly worsen. Whilst the Royal Mail are denying the closure of the Sorting Office would affect parcel collection even Tom Levitt who has spoken to them directly is admitting "the public would notice a delay in local mail deliveries and it would be highly inconvenient to delivery staff". In other words in order to deliver mail in an efficient manner you need a local sorting office! That probably explains why we've always had one then!!
2. Postal workers will be in a ridiculous situation. Tom has already admitted to this too (see above). Whilst the stupidity of the situation is bad enough, local postal workers by virtue of having their local workplace forcibly removed and switched to Hyde, will now have to travel to work. At such an early hour, one would presume it means having to get there by car.
When set against the backdrop of rising fuel prices, dwindling fuel supplies and the perceived goal of reducing car usage, it is difficult to even conceive an economic case for this decision.
3. Hadfield Post Office itself, regardless of what the Royal Mail or dear old Tom or anyone else tells you, is threatened by this assault on the Sorting Office and there is a simple reason why I can say this with certainty.
My sources tell me that the sub-postmaster receives approximately £35,000 per annum for leasing out the sorting area. Now that is an awful lot of money for a small business to lose and a lot of money to have to recuperate year on year just in order to stand still.
Of course, if the sorting office does close and if the sub-postmaster has the cash to invest, coupled with the will to re-furbish and expand and puts a business plan in place, then it is possible that the preferred Tory scenario could prevail.
That is to say there is an opportunity to extend the area of the post office itself in order to provide more services, which might ultimately lead to the upgrading of the Hadfield site, such that we don't have to traipse over to Glossop every time we need something more than a stamp and an envelope.
It is a mouth watering possibility in theory but in practice the Post Office only seem to be interested in closures and this looks very much like a closure via the back door to me. Will somebody please tell me that I am wrong?
The leaflet at the top of this post suggests three things you can do to make your voice heard. Please take a look. I will expand on these suggestions in a later post. Rest assured that the Residents Association will lend its full support in fighting this proposed closure.
What you can be absolutely certain of is that not a single Post Office has ever been saved by an M.P. or a prospective M.P. having their photograph taken outside a threatened Post Office. Only action can do that. Service users and postal workers in a united action with support from our politicians might do the trick but it remains to be seen if that action is forthcoming. END
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