MEMBERS of the Communication Workers Union (CWU) have been joined by over 50 angry pensioners and other local residents in a demonstration against the closure of Borough Post Office near central London.
Monday’s demonstration was the latest protest in a rapidly growing campaign to halt the wave of post office closures and the privatisation of postal services.
CWU officials warned that three other Crown Post Offices in London, at Tottenham, East Acton and Maida Hill, are threatened with imminent closure this summer, and that unless the closure programme is reversed, the whole country will be reduced to just 373 Crown Offices by August.
Thousands more sub-post offices are also being driven out of business, despite the protests of local people.
Jeff Box, CWU assistant branch secretary (counter staff), said that 70 Crown Offices had already been ‘franchised out’ to Smith’s.
The ‘consultation process’ over the planned closure of the Borough office ends on May 29, he told News Line, with plans to transfer services to a Costcutter supermarket ‘which has not even been built yet’.
Box warned: ‘It will have an adverse effect on the local shops and services in this area. It will impact on the elderly who need to use the post office.
‘Our members who work at Borough have been offered voluntary redundancy or redeployment within the business.
‘But no one wants to leave: both the staff and the customers want the office to remain open.’
Daisy Blake joined the protest and said: ‘This is our main post office.
‘They closed down the one at Elephant.
‘The back of this building was the main delivery office. They closed it down and moved it to Mandela Way.
‘Pensioners used to rely on the small office at Tooley Street. They closed that one down as well.
‘If they claim the Post Office is losing money, that is their fault, because things that used to be done by the Post Office, they’ve given it to private contractors.’
She continued: ‘The London Bridge office is a small Crown Post Office and people there are already queueing up round the corner in St Thomas Street.
‘Why are they plonking the post office in a tiny grocery store? Why is it, that’s what I want to know!
‘They are taking everything away from the ordinary people.
‘They are contracting out the Post Office. Why can’t it be the British Post Office as it used to be.
‘Companies like Insignia don’t know how to organise anything and they’re blaming the public for their losses.
‘And moreover, with the little pension I get, there’s no point me opening a bank account for that. You don’t get millions.
‘You take your pension out of the post office every week and pay your bills.
‘So I don’t know what the hell they want the public to do.
‘They closed down the post office at Abbey Street too.’
Daisy said that if Borough closes, ‘I will have to walk two miles when I already have to help other pensioners who can barely walk at all.
‘Moving to Costcutter is taking the mickey. Enough is enough.’
Sandra Marshall said: ‘I’m here to stop Borough Post Office closing.
‘It’s been part and parcel of my life since I lived around here. It’s the centre of the community.
‘We have very friendly staff here who know about customer services.
‘We get a personalised service, they know us by our first names and are always asking after us.’
She said closing the Borough office ‘is absolute hypocrisy’.
Andy Furey, CWU national officer for Post Office Counters, called on Post Office Limited ‘to reverse their ill-conceived decisions’.
He attacked the government for ‘sanctioning the closure programme’ and added: ‘I think Brown needs to wake up to public opinion.
‘No one within the general public supports the closure of post offices and privatisation of Crown Offices.
‘The elections gave Brown a wake-up call last week and he needs to start listening to the views of people, and a good place to start would be to protect and save post offices.
‘It would cost a fraction of what it cost in public money to shore-up Northern Rock.’
Peter Meech, CWU Territorial Counters Rep for Eastern England, said: ‘I represent counters staff at 233 branches in south-east England.
‘In the Northern Territory (England, Scotland, and Northern Ireland), if franchising of Crown Offices to Smith’s is completed in August, they will be left with just 110 or so branches, and 88 in the whole of the Western Territory (Wales and south-west England).
‘The local community here are up in arms. They saved this office 20 years ago.’
He continued: ‘In the last two months in Blythe Road (W14), the post office has gone from a Crown Office to a Costcutter franchise to bankruptcy.
‘So there’s now no post office in the W14 area.
‘And in Malden, Essex, the same thing’s happened.
‘They were franchised to Budgens and they’ve gone bankrupt as well.
‘The Crown Office in Streatham was transferred to Smith’s last October and local shops say they’ve suffered a 75 per cent loss in business.
‘So franchising doesn’t guarantee you a post office anymore and it threatens local shops with bankruptcy.’
Meech warned that closing Borough Post Office would mean the loss of staff with ‘something like 200 years of experience’ between them.
He also warned that the Liberals and Tories support privatisation.
He concluded: ‘There is no other country in the world that doesn’t subsidise its post offices.
‘They are now talking about trying to get rid of the Saturday delivery and also looking at splitting Post Office Limited from Royal Mail.’
Pensioner Rose Elkins said: ‘I’ve lived here all my life and rely on Borough Post Office. It shouldn’t have to close.
‘And we should get our pension from a post office, not from the bank.
‘Pensioners are being impoverished because they are having to pay for the costs of their care.
‘Why should we have to pay when they don’t pay in Scotland.’
Sandra Peters from Elephant and Castle said: ‘We don’t want to go to a supermarket.
‘The Post Office service and supermarkets are separate things.
‘A post office is for post, it is for parcels and all the things you need to do.
‘I didn’t believe in striking at one time and I didn’t believe in protesting, but I think now you have to do it.’
Hairdresser Ilyas Anastasis said: ‘If Borough Post Office closes it will affect my business.
‘I’ve been here for 35 years. They’ve already demolished my shop and I moved to Tabard Street.
‘It is a shame. There used to be a 24-hour sorting office here.
‘I don’t know what’s going to happen.’
Vally Wilson, secretary of the newly-formed South-East London Council of Action, said: ‘Closing this office means there’s going to be people losing their jobs.
‘They’ll probably sell this building for loads of money.
‘We’re inviting people to the Council of Action meeting to see if we can defend local jobs and services against privatisation.’