HADFIELD SORTING OFFICE CLOSURE THREAT - Official Response From Royal Mail

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Many Hadfield residents have by now received official replies from Royal Mail (RM) who attempt to address concerns regarding the proposed closure of the Sorting Office. Our thanks to readers of this blog who forwarded copies of the said item which can be read above.

The matter hinges (according to the RM spokesperson) around the question of suitability of the Station Road premises which they state are "no longer fit for purpose" under Health and Safety guidelines.

The building was assessed by council H&S officer Mark Carlisle but during a meeting of residents last month, a Health and Safety Officer from the Communication Workers Union who represent postal workers stated that Hadfield is one of the safest Sorting Offices in the country.

So, what is the problem? If it is down to "lack of space" then surely, it will have always been so, the building hasn't suddenly decreased in size.

Does Hadfield post office need the latest design in sorting frames? Or, would we prefer to have our local posties happy in their jobs without the extra inconvenience of daily travel into Hyde and back out again twice a day?

If RM do, as the letter says, "consider the well-being of our staff to be of paramount importance" why did our local postal delivery workers feel that they had no option but to strike over these issues?

Whilst RM may well 'intend' to continue to offer the option for customers to collect mail from the Hadfield office we have absolutely no guarantee that this will happen or for how long. Indeed, the letter goes on to give a not-so-subtle get-out clause with the words, "however...a post office can close for any number of reasons" and, "we cannot guarantee that any post office will remain open indefinitely".

It should be heartening to be told that the sub-postmistress will continue to be paid for allowing customers to collect parcels from the post office but the reality is that renumeration for this will not be anything like what she receives for the Sorting Office side of the business. There is no doubt that the business will struggle to pay it's way without the substantial annual income derived from this aspect of the business.

Contrary to the claims in the letter, I suggest, Post Office Ltd., that you do have some control over whether the sub postmistress resigns/retires or not!

On a wider issue, what worries me is the unrelenting continuation of the trend to centralise everything at huge costs to jobs, the environment and people's lives when what we, as customers, residents, neighbours, and workers really need is for these services to WORK for US in our community.

UPDATE ON THE HADFIELD D.L.O. DISPUTE

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Hello Everyone,

Apologies to our regular readers for the lack of posts this week but there is a reason. Oddly enough, it's actually due to over activity rather than a lack of it. We have been busy wording, printing and delivering the above postcard, which is the centrepiece of our campaign to Save Hadfield Sorting Office from closure.

The postcard sums up our fears for the future of Hadfield Post Office. itself should the L.D.O. be closed and this has been dealt with in earlier posts. However there have been some developments over the past few days which I will summarise.

Bouyed by the staggering support shown by residents across Hadfield through their poster campaign, local posties voted unanimously for strike action in an attempt to reverse the 90 Day Closure Notice issued by Post Office Management.

Two days worth of strike action were called, the first being Thursday 10th July. The scheduled second day, which was to be Monday 14th July wasn't actually needed due to the fact that the P.O. buckled and finally agreed to hold talks with the CWU after previously refusing to discuss the matter.

What has been agreed is a six step negotiation process which will take six weeks to complete. This is certainly a step in the right direction and obviously means there is the real possibility of a positive outcome.

Consequently, our proposed Public Meeting has to be put on hold pending negotiations as it would be unrealistic to expect either party to speak publicly whilst talks are in progress nor would it be pertinent to do so when there is a chance of a positive outcome through official channels. We will of course still be ready to call such a meeting if and when it seems appropriate and/or necessary.

Our postcard campaign, on the other hand, is vital right now, which is why we are attempting to get thousands of them out across Hadfield over the next week or so. The people of Hadfield have shown local posties their support through displaying their posters. Posties have shown their determination to keep the L.D.O. open by being prepared to take strike action.

The final piece in the jigsaw is for us all to show the main man himself, Chairman, Allan Leighton how angry we are at the Closure Notice. Residents and service users can do this by putting a stamp on the card that comes through their door and mailing it to him. If you can't wait for yours to arrive you can always print off the one above on card!

If you would like to help the campaign along, you can volunteer to help deliver our postcard by e-mailing us at tinhadra@aol.com and we'll get the cards out to you. The following map details our progress so far and where you can come in:

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Residents Meeting - MONDAY JULY 7TH, 8.00PM the NEW LAMP, BANKBOTTOM

Next Monday is the 7th July and it is the first Monday in the month which means Tintwistle and Hadfield Residents Association (TAHRA) will meet at the New Lamp, Bankbottom, Hadfield at our usual time of 8.00pm prompt.

This month we have not one but two guest speakers, which is good news for all those of you who don't want to hear me all night long.

Top of the Agenda of course are the proposed closures of Tintwistle Post Office and Hadfield Delivery Office. I am therefore pleased to confirm that Dave Kennedy the Branch Secretary of the Communications Workers Union (CWU) will address the meeting in person.

He will explain the issues, provide an update and answer all your questions. I have also had a phone call from a local Councillor confirming their attendance. It's clearly a topic of grave concern and promises to be a lively meeting, so get there early if you don't want to end up in the gallery.

Regarding the proposed Tintwistle closure, we have already produced a postcard (see above) which will be distributed around the village and the Brosscroft area next week. Residents will just need to sign and return it, although written letters are always preferable. Our response to the Delivery Office closure is something that I hope will come out of the meeting.

Our second guest speaker is Jo Osborn who has been in the local press recently over her battle with HPBC. She is attempting to prevent them from building flats on a greenfield site on Lambgates. She will outline the issues involved and her reasons for opposing the plans. The proposed development comes before planning on Monday 21st July. Comments can be made up until that date by clicking here.

Our final Agenda item will be to give another mention to the Local Development Framework. It may not sound very catchy or interesting and it's something I've been banging on about all year. However Friday 25th July is the final day for responding to the consultation document 'Shaping the Future of High Peak', which you can do here or here.

Basically it is your chance to tell the council what you do and don't want to see happen over the next 20 years. Bang in your form, get yourself on the list of consultees and you will have a greater say in what goes on in your area in the months and years to come. I have provided a fuller explanation in a previous blog which you can find here

---------------------------------AGENDA ITEMS-------------------------------

1. Dave Kennedy - Branch Secretary CWU - Tintwistle P.O/Hadfield L.D.O. closure threat.

2. Jo Osborn - Proposed Lambgates development.

3. Plea to respond to Local Development Framework http://consultation.limehouse.co.uk/highpeak/drafts/46/index.html

4. AOB
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HADFIELD POST OFFICE- Sorting Office Closure Threat -

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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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