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28th
July
2004
Post Office Closure Program Hits Dudley Hard
Yet, like our traditional pubs, post offices are disappearing fast. Last week getting on for a quarter of Black Country branches were earmarked for closure under the euphemistically titled "National Reinvention Programme", including Kent Street Upper Gornal, Northway Sedgley, Church Road Coseley and Sedgley Road Woodsetton. This initiative is in concert with European legislation aimed at rationalising the postal service across the member countries. A Post Office spokesperson said: "Post Office Ltd is currently restructuring its network of Post Office™ branches in urban areas to create a viable and sustainable structure that will help us meet the needs of our customers and clients better. In many urban areas, there are simply too many Post Office branches for the number of customers, and unless we take action now, the whole network is at risk." To complain about a closure, you can sign a petition at the busy Kent Street Upper Gornal Post Office, the Upper Gornal Labour Club, or the nearby Kwiksave. Or why not contact your local councillors via the Council website at www.dudley.gov.uk? Another avenue would be to get in touch with our MP Ross Cranston. The Post Office have to communicate with him regarding closures, as part of their agreement with the regulator, so he should be well briefed. His website is www.rosscranston.labour.co.uk Finally, there is a Post Office address that you can write to if you have a comment about a closure: National Consultation Team PO Box 2060 Watford WD18 8ZW. You have until September 15th 2004 to do this. There seems to be some sort of general acceptance these days - among local and national politicians, Councils, quangos and Euro bureaucrats alike - that there is something inherently good about an unceasing drive towards an economic achievement that leaves in its wake the rubble of what used to be community life. Its effects seep into our lives in a gradual, insidious fashion so that we do not realise what it is that we are losing. Banks, theatres, village schools, pubs and post offices may close, but there is always an automated freephone hotline to ring whatever your problem. Man was not designed to live like this; we prospered because we recognised the value of community as a kind of extended family in which people live, work, and support each other. Will that soon be a thing of the past? And what then will the future hold for our children and grandchildren? newsdesk@yampy.co.uk. --> |
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