Julie Wassmer - Our Post Office service

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WHITSTABLE'S worst kept secret is out: Budgens has offered itself as a franchisee to the Post Office Ltd, making possible the closure of our Gladstone Road Crown Post Office.

Confirmation came last week with a Post Office press release, the title of which included the desperate sales pitch of "significantly longer opening hours". Curiously, Binny Amin, who runs Budgens, seemed unaware of the announcement.

This gave the unfortunate impression that the Post Office may have hung Binny out to dry on the very day they chose to break cover. Perhaps they had been spooked by a public meeting that had taken place 12 hours before?

Attended by over 80 people including local councillors, members of the Communication Workers Union (CWU), Whitstable's Stop the Cuts group and no fewer than three of the Parliamentary candidates who will stand against Julian Brazier in the next general election (Hugh Lanning for Labour, Stuart Jeffery for the Greens and James Flanagan for the Lib Dems) it was noted that representatives from the Post Office and Budgens were conspicuous by their absence.

While promises of extended opening hours may appear superficially attractive, the unvarnished truth is that if this franchise goes ahead, Whitstable will be deprived of the guarantee of a continuing valued local service. Crown Post Offices are under government control and their services remain secure if no franchisee comes forward – as Budgens is now doing.

Post Office Ltd was asked to come to the public meeting to hear community's views but they chose to snub the invitation and informed staff of the closure the very next day – offering an indication of how meaningless their six-week 'consultation' is.

While Binny may have acted in an understandable move to maintain the store's position against competition from a new Morrisons it is unfortunate that the plans for the franchise were not confirmed before so that this crucial issue could have been discussed openly, and long before now – with residents, customers and High Street traders. Any move of our Crown Post Office leaves the Gladstone Road building vacant for another supermarket to move into – ironically increasing competition for Budgens and others.

The franchise subjects our future post office service to the vagaries of the commercial market. The CWU stated that the only way now to save our Crown Post Office is for Budgens to withdraw before the franchise is finalised so the store risks losing custom from those who are against our post office service becoming a franchise.

Alan Cook, the Post Office managing director who oversaw the hiving off of the Crown Post Offices, has retired with a £1 million bonus.

Meanwhile, Whitstable is left in an unfortunate position because if Budgens fails to succeed, both the store and our town will be the losers.

For more information contact:-

Whitstable Chamber of Commerce on chamber@whistablechamber.org

Save Whitstable Crown Post Office Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/WhitstableCrown" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; PostOffice?fref>ts