Post Office petition: parties call for action

A POLITICAL row has broken out between the Lib Dems and Labour over the closure of Wokingham town’s Post Office with both parties blaming each other for the failure to keep the historic building open.

Last week, we revealed that the Broad Street branch will shut on June 5, and a new kiosk will open in WHSmith in Market Place the following day, much to the dismay of residents who wanted the existing branch to stay.

Ever since we broke the news last autumn, there has been strong feeling that the Post Office had to remain in its current location – and thousands of residents signed a petition in its favour as a result.

In an angry exchange of letters to The Wokingham Paper – printed on page 21 – party leaders clashed over the 6,000 strong petition against the closure.

Lib Dem leader, Clive Jones said he was told by “Senior Post office managers that the petition had not been received by anyone at the Post Office.”

He added: “This begs the question, what has happened to it. Who was it given to, or is it still in the Labour party office?

“It appears that the petition has not been taken into consideration in determining whether the Wokingham Post Office should be relocated or not.

Cllr Jones added: “5,000 people who signed this petition have been seriously let down by the Wokingham Labour Party.”

However, in a furious response, Andy Croy, leader of the Labour group accused the Lib Dems of having done “nothing but snipe” and insisted the petition had been shown to “a Post Office manager at the public consultation in Rose Street in February.”

He added: “As part of our discussion we put the petition on the table, in front of the manager, and said “Here is the petition. Do you want a copy?”.

“The manager was impressed by the numbers who had signed and the strength of opposition. She made a note about the petition in her note book. She declined our offer of a copy of the petition.

“At this point, the petition was, and is live. It was still gathering signatures and was not complete.”

Cllr Jones compared the Wokingham petition to one in Kendal signed by 4,000 people which local MP Tim Farron delivered to Senior Post Office managers.

He said: “The Kendal petition and who it was delivered to was crucial to saving their post office.

“It’s no good, as Labour did, just saying ‘we have a big petition’. It has to be directed to the right people.

“The Labour Party has not behaved properly with the Wokingham petition.

“I have an email from a Senior Post Office official who confirmed that no petition from Wokingham was presented to Post Office Limited during the public consultation period.”

But Cllr Croy hit back saying: “The local Lib Dems may believe that 6,000 Wokingham people are wrong. I do not. The Labour Party does not. The signatories are right and the Post Office needs to stay in its historic location.”

Cllr Stuart Munro, the Conservatives’ Executive Member for Business, Economic Development and Strategic Planning, said: “Cllr Jones conveniently hasn’t said that I and Philip Mirfin [Executive member for regeneration and up for election next week] attended the meeting and we were very vocal about the Post Office’s lack of true consultation and the move being against the will of our residents as a whole and the whole Council even referring to the large petition.”

No decision on parcel collections

One consequence of the Post Office closure is that parcels will need to be collected from Royal Mail’s depot.

Residents used to have to queue in all weathers to collect parcels from the back of the Broad Street Post Office, but this system was changed after a woman was seriously injured a number of years ago.

Since then, parcels were available for collection from inside the Post Office. This will now change, but Royal Mail bosses admit they don’t know what the plan is yet.

A Royal Mail spokesperson told The Wokingham Paper: “Royal Mail is aware of the potential relocation of the Wokingham Post Office, pending the end of the consultation and a final decision being made.

“We are in discussionS with the Post Office to minimise any impact of the potential branch relocation on Royal Mail operations and customers as much as possible.

“Royal Mail is committed to delivering excellent customer service for all customers.”