Read now: MP's Post Office letter (From Bucks Free Press)

Read now: MP's Post Office letter

3:16pm Friday 27th June 2008

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POST Office closures threaten to boost queues at other branches and hit pensioners, Wyombe MP Paul Goodman has told mail chiefs.

In his response to a consultation to shut 11 south Bucks branches Mr Goodman raises questions about how easy OAPs and the disabled will be able to use alternative branches.

The Post Offices in line for closure are: Loudwater, Station Road, High Wycombe.

Wycombe Lane, Wooburn Green.

The Parade, Bourne End.

Hazlemere Crossroads, High Wycombe.

Desborough Road, High Wycombe.

North Town, Totteridge Road, High Wycombe.

Old Town, Aylesbury End, Beaconsfield.

Chalfont Common, Rickmansworth Lane, Chalfont St Peter.

Amersham Old Town, Market Square.

Botley Stores, Botley Road, Chesham.

Waterside, Chesham.

Mr Goodman's letter, to Gary Herbert of the Post Office Ltd's national consultaton team states:

Dear Mr Herbert,

This is a letter about the proposal to close two post offices in my Wycombe constituency - one in Desborough Road, one in North Town.

I have five questions at this stage.

First, by my calculation customers from these two post offices (1750-2498 per week) are expected to travel to two other post offices in each case (with 5250 - 5998 customers per week).

If these figures are correct, this means that there will be 30 to 40 per cent more customers using the suggested post offices in question. What calculation has been made of the effect on queues?

Second, can you confirm that deprivation information has been taken into account, especially in relation to poorer and disabled elderly people?

Third, what estimate, if any, has been made in the consultation about how many poorer and disabled people are likely to respond? If an estimate has been made, on what basis has it been made?

Fourth, what estimate, if any, has been made in the consultation about how many poorer and disabled people are likely to negotiate the "hilly terrain" described in the consultation document in relation to the other post offices that they're expected to travel to?

If an estimate has been made, on what basis has it been made?

Fifth, are the post offices that face closure profitable in any sense?

I will be writing to you again in due course.

Yours sincerely,

Paul Goodman MP for Wycombe

A consultation on the plans closes on July 28. To respond write to National Consultation Team, Post Office Ltd, FREEPOST CONSULTATION TEAM, telephone 08457 22 33 44.

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