Anger over lost votes and planned closures

[TrueBlueTerrier]

http://www.thisishampshire.net/news/ham ... osures.php

By Dick Bellringer
Comment

TEST Valley councillors fired two thundering broadsides at the Royal Mail Group as they expressed their fury over lost postal ballots and proposed post office closures.

In the first salvo they launched a withering attack on the Royal Mail for mis-delivering nearly 1,000 postal votes in this year's May election.

Then they lined them up again for an attack on plans to close post offices in Test Valley, including six in the north around Andover.
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Former Test Valley Mayor, Cllr Jim Neal, originally drafted a motion calling on the council to demand that the Royal Mail, which includes Post Office Ltd, closes no more post offices - but that was before the recent announcement.

He accepted an amendment from Cllr Alan Dowden deploring the proposals to close Test Valley post offices.

And the council unanimously called on Royal Mail to retain and improve existing services and keep open all post offices or sub-post offices used by Test Valley residents.

Referring to the Post Office in Old Winton Road, Cllr Neal said: "Residents will have to walk to the main Post Office in Bridge Street which is already working to maximum capacity and will not be able to cope.

"Elderly people will have to take out more money to prevent them making multiple trips, leaving them more vulnerable to robbery."

As far as rural shops were concerned, they almost always depended on the post office. "Rural shops are the life blood of the community," he added.

Cllr Arthur Peters, whose Anna Ward includes two post offices facing the axe, was concerned that some of the Post Office's assumptions and data appeared to be incorrect.

Council leader Ian Carr said Test Valley was working with Hampshire County Council to check the statistics.

[andy2007]

What do you reckon the odds are that the same will happen to our Ballot Papers, from the areas likley to vote No?