Here’s my latest column for a trio of local magazines:

Queue early for Christmas
I got a Christmas Card (how sweet) from the Post Office giving me the last posting dates for Christmas – 18th for 2nd class, 20th for first class and 23rd for special delivery.

But given the closure of our beloved Highgate, Alexandra Park Road, Ferme Park Road, Salisbury Road and Weston Park sub-post offices by our hideously, short-sighted Government – it isn’t the popping them into a post box that’s going to be the problem. It’s the long, long queues that will form at the remaining Post Offices as we desperately try and send our parcels and buy our stamps. It will be horrendous if the already lengthened queues are anything to go by.

At the beginning of October, residents were already having to wait nearly twice as long at Post Offices as they did before this round of closures. Postwatch showed that the average time taken to be served was 28 minutes – up from 15 minutes.

I have done my own survey – and am still doing it (so if you want to record your own waiting times, just email me on lynne@lynnefeatherstone.org for survey details). I am doing this so that I can stand up in Parliament and present the evidence from here, locally, to try and persuade Gordon Brown of the error of his ways.

In mid-November, I was on Ken Livingstone’s radio show on LBC and at the end he said (pinch your nose as you say this to engender the dulcet, nasal tones of ex-Mayor L) ‘Lynne, you can have a minute to rant about whatever you want’.

Not one to to look a gift-horse in the mouth I made an on air appeal direct to Gordon Brown! Please, please, please Gordon – you have relented on the Post Office Card Account which will mean that 3,000 sub-post offices across the country will not have to close. But that isn’t fair on us who have already had our much-beloved and absolutely vital heart of our parades torn from us – leaving the elderly, the vulnerable, mothers with buggies, homeworkers and pretty much everyone else just fed-up with you. This is your opportunity to make yourself really popular.

Sadly, he was in New York, so missed my pleading. However, I followed it up with a letter to him asking same. I await a response!

And you know what? When they closed our local offices, the Post Office promised that they would introduce extra resources / facilities at the ones that would have to take the displaced business. I wrote to ask them what they had done in terms of this promise – and the answer came back – nothing!

And so my tip for Christmas – don’t leave visiting the Post Office until late December, when you do make your trip give yourself plenty of time – and have a cup of tea and take a deep breath before heading off because even so – with those broken promises, you may find some very long queues!