'Scaremongering' claim over Grimston post office fears

[TrueBlueTerrier]

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UNION leaders have been accused of scaremongering over the decision to close a village delivery office.

The Communication Workers’ Union (CWU) fears the relocation of the Grimston delivery office to Lynn in early 2012 will also cause the village post office to close.

But Royal Mail said they are commited to keeping the Massingham Road post office open, and assured customers it will be unaffected.

Simon Peach, area delivery representative for the CWU, said the union fears the change will leave the post office, which is waiting for a new postmaster, unviable.

He said: “The CWU believes that the revenue from the mail work will be vital to any new postmaster and that removing it, along with the local postal workers, will affect the community of Grimston.

“At the moment the postmen and women sort all the post in the back of the shop in a room that was purpose -built quite recently.

“Four people work out of Grimston and they will have to go to Lynn. Our concern is that if the mail work goes the post office could close as well.”

Mr Peach said he believed Royal Mail’s decision was purely financial as moving the delivery work to Lynn would save around £13,000. However, he warned deliveries to villagers may be later.

A petition to save the post office has been signed by between 600 and 700 people so far.

But a Royal Mail spokesman has insisted there were no plans to close the branch and said the decision to move the delivery office was down to falling mail volumes and “increasingly tough trading conditions”.

He said: “The comments from local CWU representatives amounts to scaremongering, and I’m not sure where they’re coming from. We have made a commitment to keep the post office in Grimston open and we will stick to it.

“We must respond to the huge growth in electronic communications and the resulting decline in overall mail volumes.

“With 18 million fewer letters posted every day compared to five years ago, we must modernise our operations and the consolidation of delivery offices will play a major part in allowing us to place the business on a sound, secure and stable footing.”

[fishtank]

They say they will keep it open.
They don't say what form that will take.
A shop that sells stamps and has a few leaflets on display is not a Post Office.
It's a Post Office Local.

[Lounge Lizard]

"A petition to save the post office has been signed by between 600 and 700 people so far."
"It covers an area of 18.08 km2 (6.98 sq mi) and had a population of 1952 in 823 households as of the 2001 census"
So a third of the village population want it kept open.