What a phenomenal turn out by local Noel Park residents come to meet me at the Salisbury Road sub-post office – which is one of the ones Labour want to close.

Everyone is outraged, furious, upset. No one can understand this short-sighted proposal driven by Labour to axe it – and many other local Post Offices. They are part of the fabric of our lives – and we don’t want to have to go to one further away. In this case the suggested alternative is on an impossible to cross, never free of traffic junction. It is a quarter of the size of the Salisbury Road one and you can’t get wheelchairs properly through the door and to the counter. This one – by contrast – is easy access for wheelchairs (two at a time if need be), has plenty of meter parking for those who cannot walk and has lots of room in the shop.

I met many, many people here today. The older ladies were all up in arms. Olive wanted a soap box to tell the Government where they could stick it! But Mrs Howe, 75 in a wheelchair is incandescent at what this will do to her life and her ability to get out and about. Another lady who cannot walk very far – but who can get to this Post Office – told me that it would cost her £4.00 each way to the Post Office she would have to go to. Was Labour going to reimburse her? Not bloody likely. Another woman told me that she cares for her severely disabled husband who would have no chance of ever being able to get to a Post Office again.

These are people’s that the Labour government is playing god with. These are the human faces behind the story of “post office closures across Haringey“. And these are the very people the state should be helping, not hindering.

George Meehan – the Labour leader of Haringey Council – turned up to tell people that they objected to the closures too. Well it’s Labour who are closing our Post Offices. I asked George in front of the crowd whether he would look at what Essex County Council are doing and stepping in to save their threatened Post Offices. No he said: Haringey wouldn’t do that.

So everyone is going to write to the consultation and put their real life story on paper. Because that is the reality of what will happen if we don’t stop the closures. You can also sign the petition here.