Fighting closures

Jul 25 2008 by Andrew Baldwin, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

SO now we have it. Fight to save one post office and another will be closed instead.

It’s hard not to feel sympathy today for sub-postmistress Una Robinson at Thornhill Edge.

Her post office was not on the initial closure list. But now it is, simply because campaigners have saved the Savile Town branch from the axe.

Una is shocked – and so are we.

Local councillor Khizar Iqbal rightly says the decision is divisive, vindictive, reprehensible, cynical and heartless.

Quite a list of strong words – and fully justifiable.

We might add that it puts two fingers up to the public, most of whom will find it quite disturbing that communities are pitted against each other in this way.

The message that comes across is unmistakable: Whatever happens, someone will suffer.

Of course, the real villain here is the Government, which has presided over the largest ever annual closure programme of sub-post offices, with more than 4,000 shutting since 1997.

The policy appears to be based on how many post offices they think they can get away with closing, rather than on a real business case or on an understanding of what the consumer wants and needs.

In a week or so it will be the turn of Huddersfield to find out its proposed closure list.

Fighting each proposal on an individual basis is natural – but it is also important that the people of our town let ministers know in a general way that they are against this attack on the British way of life. Full stop.