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Three Gillingham Post Offices to close

By on Tuesday 2nd October 2007 13:08 / 1 comment

 

THE Government today announced the first 180 of 2,500 post offices to close by the end of 2008 – of which three are situated within the constituency of Gillingham and two within the new constituency of Gillingham and Rainham.

Brompton (25 High Street, Brompton, Gillingham constituency), Byron Road (34 Byron Road, Gillingham and Rainham constituency) and Station Road (129 Station Road, Gillingham and Rainham constituency) are all for the chop by the end of next year.

Update 14:17

Last month, and indeed in August as well, I wrote letters to the Medway Messenger regarding the Green Street Post Office being moved to WHSmith in Gillingham High Street as a disgraceful cost-cutting exercise. As I walked past the current building on Saturday, so many people were queueing the line twisted its way outside of the door.

Now it transpires that a further three post offices in Gillingham are to close, further increasing the pressure on the Green Street Post Office (soon to be relocated to WHSmith) as an important “lifeline“.

I may have been in vain, but whilst we were campaigning on Saturday, there were a few people manning a street stall and campaigning against the post office movement. I commend their enthusiasm, but it was, of course, wasted.

Perhaps the Conservatives could, in amongst their policy proposals this week, offer their protection of these post offices in the event of a Conservative government post-probable autumn election.

 

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1 Comment

  1. Cllr John Ward says:
    Wednesday 3rd October 2007 at 22:11

    We had this happen to one of our ward’s Post Offices almost four years ago. Yes, we campaigned for retention of the Post Office, but we had seen that others that had been threatened with closure always did close, so were not hopeful. The decision seemed to have been taken before the announcement of “possible” closure was made.

    In our own case, this caused a real problem for several elderly folk who lived in bungalows almost next door, and would in future have to trek up and down a long and fairly steep hill to reach the next nearest Post Office.

    Therefore we decided to take positive action, and ferried those without alternative means of reaching the other place to and from it, once a week, as this news story on my website tells. We were prepared to borrow a minibus if necessary, but in the end were able to manage by car.

    To me, this is what Caring Conservatism is all about. While not for one moment excusing the closure, we did think ahead and mitigated the closure’s impact on the most vulnerable members of its clientèle.

 
 

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