Save Mandy's Post Office

The Post Office is being really inflexible and insisting on closing a small branch post office on Albany Street, NW1. The post office, based in a popular local pharmacy, serves the Regent's Park estate.

The reason?

The sub postmaster can't afford to open for just 4 hours on Saturdays any more.

Because it is too costly to open on Saturdays, the Post Office have taken the decision to terminate the contract - meaning no post office for the weekend and the entire week! I can't understand the rationale behind this.

At a stroke 4000 people will have a diminished service, and further pressure will be put on Camden High Street branch, which is already overflowing.

Local people have started a petition, and I visited the postmaster Vimal Shah to talk thorugh what we could do with local action team member Tulip Siddiq, who wrote to the local press last week on this.

The Albany Street branch happens to be the closest post office to Lord Mandelson in Camden, and I have written to him asking him to tell the post office to be more flexible - it currently serves 4000 people on the estate, one of the largest in North London, and the Crown Estate.
The CNJ covered this angle today.

Here's my letter to the post office:

Dear Keith Long,

Post Office Consultation on Albany Street Branch Post Office
As ward councillor I was very concerned to read your letter dated 27th April regarding the "temporary closure" of the Albany Street branch of the Post Office on 22nd May 2009.

I wish to question the rationale set out in your letter to me. In it you state that the contract with the existing sub-postmaster has come to an end. On investigation of this matter it appears that the reasons for this are that the sub-postmaster cannot afford to open on Saturdays, against your rules, as this costs him disproportionately. As I understand it, because this is now in breach of your agreement and you have terminated the arrangement. This has left the large community of the Crown Estate and the Regent's Park Estate without any post office service, affecting well in excess of 4000 people.

For many local people finding another post office will mean at least a four stop bus ride journey. In addition, I am sure that the shops on the Albany Street parade will be affected by the lower footfall the closure of this service will bring.

The nearest alternative post office you designate in Camden is on Camden High Street. As you will be well aware this is already very overcrowded and the source of much local complaint due to long queues and waiting times for service. Recently service numbers increased even more owing to the closure of the Crowndale Road sub-post office, which served the St.Pancras/Mornington Crescent area. It is a regular occurrence to see older people, disabled people and parents with children queuing outside of the Camden High Street branch at lunchtime and other peak hours.

It seems perverse to me at a time of recession that a compromise could not have been struck between the interests of the Albany Street branch, local residents and the Post Office. I am sure people, for example, would be more willing to accept a more limited service, rather than an outright closure if given the choice.

I am currently in the process of compiling a report summarising local people's concerns. I have raised the issue with Camden Council, with whom colleagues of yours are about to meet to discuss the local post office compact you have agreed. I am also taking the opportunity to copy this to Lord Mandelson's office as this concerns the sub-post office closest to his London residence, in my ward, outlining my concerns.

I would like to add that in your previous consultations with Camden when I was Deputy Leader, and our 2004 scrutiny report, certain issues on affordability arose around Network Regeneration. In some cases this was about the Post Office cutting costs, in others it was because of complete non-viability by the sub-postmasters themselves. It seems in this case that neither of these factors fully come into play here, if there were to be more creative thinking to find a solution.

Again, I ask if there is any way a compromise can be struck, given current economic circumstances, to find a satisfactory way forward.

Thanking you in anticipation of your early response,

Cllr. Theo Blackwell
Regents Park ward (Lab)
55a Oakley Square London NW1 7NJ

cc.
Rt.Hon. Frank Dobson MP
Lord Mandelson