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Keep our Post
Offices open
Nicola Blackwood, Conservative
Parliamentary Candidate for Oxford West & Abingdon,
has been running a letter writing campaign to
protest the planned Post Office closures announced
in February.
At street stalls held in
Summertown, Wolvercote, Abingdon, Oxford City Centre
and at Dalton Barracks with further collections of
letters taking place at Farmoor Post Office and The
White Hart in Wytham, local residents have signed
letters to send to the Post Office Consultation and
to be presented to the Post Office Minister, Pat
McFadden MP at DBERR.
The message the campaign is
sending to the Post Office Consultation and the
Government is that the proposed closure of
Lower Wolvercote, Wytham, Farmoor, Dalton Barracks
and Wootton Road, Abingdon Post Offices poses a real
threat to the communities they serve. And that it is
the most vulnerable who will bear the brunt of these
short sighted measures, not only will the elderly
and disabled people struggle but also mothers with
young children and armed forces families.
Local
residents have explained that the distance between
Wytham and Farmoor Post Offces and the nearest
alternatives, for example, cannot be made on foot
except by the most active. And even in Wolvercote,
where there is another Post Office within the
village, the route from Lower Wolvercote to Upper
Wolvercote involves over half a mile of steep
inclines, which in our British weather will not be
safe for those who are not steady on their feet.
While the armed forces and Commonwealth families at
Dalton Barracks – most of whom also have young
families – feel they should not even be considered
as an option for the removal of a service which
plays a vital role in soldiers’ morale on the front
line.
Finally,
as one respondent commented, at a time when we are
all trying to play our part in reducing emissions
and tackling Climate Change, it seems nonsensical to
introduce a policy which will actually force us to
increase our road use.
Nicola Blackwood and local
residents posted 567 letters to the Post Office
Consultation from outside Lower Wolvercote Post
Office on Friday 14 March 2008. Lower Wolvercote
Post Office is itself threatened with closure.
Then Yesterday, Nicola led a
delegation of local residents to Westminster for a
half hour meeting with Charles Hendry MP, Shadow
Post Office Minister, to express their concern.
After this, the group marched to DBERR to deliver
625 letters to Pat McFadden, Post Office Minister.
Nicola commented, ‘Post Offices
are vital to keeping the communities of Oxford West
& Abingdon happy and healthy and it is socially
irresponsible to ignore the negative impact their
closure will have on the most vulnerable in our
society. And after the closure of nearly a third of
Post Offices nationally, I think we are all
beginning to wonder how many more do the Government
want to close?
‘The reaction to this campaign
has been phenomenal; we’ve had people queuing up in
the street to sign up, and in some very unpleasant
March weather. On an issue like this local residents
are proving that whatever party we choose, our real
concern is to safeguard our communities. I just hope
that the Post Office Consultation and Pat McFadden
MP will listen to the message we are sending them
today. We’re sending them several hundred copies so
they can’t get away with saying they got lost in the
post!’ |
