Trade union urges East Finchley community to back its PO

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Trade union urges East Finchley community to back its post office

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Campaigners fighting plans to relocate East Finchley post office shunned promises the service would not be compromised at a meeting tonight.

Communication Worker’s Union spoke out against the national postal service’s plans to close the Crown Post Office in High Road and incorporate the branch inside a nearby shop to save money.

The Post Office is threatening to franchise 70 post offices across the UK in a bid to regenerate the Crown Network which is currently operating at a £40million loss per annum.

But trade union member Ian Ward said getting rid of the crown post office in the High Road would be detrimental to the services currently provided to the public.

Speaking at tonight’s meeting organised by CWU, Mr Ward said: “We have always said the crown post office is the heart of the community.

"You will lose the staff who have worked for the post office for years – I don’t think they’ll relocate – and the services will be inferior. If you think you can move that Post Office and its staff and facilities somewhere else in East Finchley, you can’t.


“Franchising will create a totally inferior service.”

Councillor Arjun Mittra also referred to the former Finchley Central Post Office which was proposed to relocate but ended up closing entirely.

Speaking out on behalf of the Hornsey Pensioners and 55 Plus in Barnet, Janet Shapiro also had her concerns. She said: “Post offices are very important to pensioners – they use many of the services including a card which they use for benefits and pensions.

“They also don’t want to have to travel too far to get there, so relocating it could be a problem.”

But Simon Burman, senior stakeholder manager at the Post Office, moved to reassure residents saying despite the possible relocation of the branch, the services would remain the same.

He said: “We’re not looking to take a post office out of East Finchley. We’re looking to make the post office more sustainable so we can keep it in the area.

“We used to have 28 million people visiting our branches in the UK and now we have nine million.”

He told the meeting for every £1.60 it costs to run the post office in East Finchley, it generates £1 in income, losing the national postal service 60p.

Mr Burman added: “We need to find a more cost effective model and we’re looking at a better way of running the service. But we’ll be offering our customers exactly the same service.”

If the Post Office finds a potential buyer there will be a six week public consultation.

CWU has collected more than 1,000 signatures from people who want to save the crown post office.