Interesting discussion over on StroudGreen.org about the future of Ferme Park Road Post Office, where a couple of people asked why people should want to save their local Post Office.

Well, here’s my answer:

1. Even on purely narrow financial terms, it’s not as simple as saying “Post Office making a loss so it should close” – because many of those currently under threat of closure are actually making a profit.
2. Losing a key local service such as a Post Office can have a serious knock-on effect on other local businesses – which in turn, even purely on a financial basis, means a short term apparent saving can turn out to be a long term cost.
3. Anyway, is life really all just about money? I think there are more important values in life than the bottom of a balance sheet. For many people the local Post Office is a key part of the local community, and I think that sense of neighbourliness and belonging is something that matters and is something to be cherished. Put it like this – would you judge who your friends are purely on how much money they’ve got? There are other things that matter than money.
4. That said, we shouldn’t be naive about costs. But one thing we are lacking is any real drive to help make Post Offices more financially vibrant, such as by using them as the delivery point for more public services in future. With drive and imagination, there’s much that could be done to strengthen their role in the community, rather than to gut it.

And if I’ve persuaded you … there’s a petition at ourcampaign.org.uk/haringeypostoffices

Following on from the news about Highgate Village Post Office (sign the petition here), six more also face the axe. As the Hornsey Journal reports:

THE proposed closure of seven Haringey post offices is set to be announced next week, the Journal has learned. Councillors and anxious residents have thrown their weight behind a lobby to stop the cutbacks which could see trade and the community suffer.

The leaked list, revealed by a reliable source, includes Weston Park, Ferme Park Road, Alexandra Park Road, Salisbury Road, West Green Road, Page Green Road and Highgate High Street…

Lib Dem MP for Hornsey and Wood Green Lynne Featherstone, who lives in Highgate, said: “These are disgraceful plans. We have just seen off a threat to our local community centre at Jacksons Lane and now we have this.”

I was in The Evening Standard yesterday with a story about the number of Post Offices London has lost over the last few years under Labour – it’s the same old, same old story of Labour (and the Tories before them) letting our local communities get run down and lose out on key local services:

Opposition MPs said post offices were the “lifeblood” of communities as they helped other small shops and businesses to thrive. They warned the situation is likely to get worse as ministers are planning another 2,500 closures across the country, of which as many as 150 could be in the capital.
Liberal Democrat MP Lynne Featherstone said: “It is unacceptable that the Government has allowed post office numbers to dwindle so drastically in the last few years. It must act to protect them immediately.”

Last meeting of the evening was one I have arranged with the people who said, following my massive postal survey last year, that they would be interested in taking part in a group I wanted to set up to monitor and pressurise local postal services.

The survey found huge problems with late delivery, missed delivery, wrong delivery, no deliver, stolen items etc etc. There was also some praise for individual postmen/women – and the Royal Mail management were good at responding to many of the individual problems – but overall there’s a big problem. (And for those who asked – as a few did! – why does the quality of the post really matter – I’d just ask you to consider, as one example – all those who work from home who miss orders, bills and payments because of post problems).

I went to Hornsey local sorting office a while back (hideously early morning) to learn a bit about how they worked and some of the problems they in turn have. I concluded that if we set up a local group to work with our local sorting offices on local problems that arose – we might improve things on the ground.

I set up BusWatch West Haringey in 2000 and Chris Barker, who took on the lead on this, has turned it into a very successful and influential pressure group which constantly monitors and raises issues on local bus problems and now has a strong voice to champion our local needs. In this light, I asked Chris to come and talk to the group who arrived at The Three Compasses for the inaugural meeting.

The key thing is to really find another Chris – and fantastically our new Chris is to be Mark Galbraith. It isn’t a huge matter of time – but it takes someone who can drive it forward. Mark will be aided by the group. The Group is yet to be named – but I expect it will be something like MailWatch!

There’s a petition on the Number 10 website that’s been doing the rounds amongst political activists (aka leaflet deliverers) in the last couple of days about the design of letterboxes.

Now if someone has been out delivering leaflets for political parties (or indeed other local community groups) the chances are they have tales of letterboxes that snap on your fingers, letterboxes that don’t protect you from the charging dog, “environmentally friendly” brushes that are meant to keep out draughts but just scrunch up anything stuck through the letterbox, letterboxes that aren’t there, and on and on. (Politics is so exciting and glamorous isn’t it?)

I’ve not signed it myself as being a good liberal (sorry!) I’m not quite convinced this is really a matter of central government legislation – it should more be a matter of Royal Mail and letterbox suppliers / sellers working harder together to raise standards (I mean, how hard is it to design a letterbox that works) and also it is up to us, the purchasers of letterboxes, to pick wisely. Maybe if all these methods are tried harder and fail then legislation could be a matter of last resort … but only last resort.

The serious point behind all this – apart from the one about dogs, fingers, blood and hospital visits that is – is that delivering literature through people’s letterboxes is a key part of political engagement – letting people know what their representatives are up to, soliciting feedback on views and so on. There is another area where current rules and practice really hinder that – and that’s the far too common references in property agreements banning people from displaying posters in their (flat) windows. That seems to me just a straight forward curtailment of freedom of expression at election times – and it’s hard to see why it is justified.

When I looked at my diary yesterday and discovered I had a 6.30am visit to Hornsey N8 Royal Mail delivery office I did ponder for a moment as to whether this was just cruelty or revenge by my diary secretary. However, having done the event, it was well worth it.

I conducted a huge survey of postal services in the constituency during the year. It had a huge response and whilst many people did say how good the service was and how pleased they were with their own postman, – there certainly were a lot of complaints – late delivery, mis-delivery, no delivery and wrong delivery – amongst others. All of which I had agreed with Royal Mail that they would address and answer individually. They have been very cooperative on this front.

I am setting up a Hornsey & Wood Green MailWatch group to work at local level with local offices to deal with these sorts of issues and form good local relationships – so that when and as things happen, there is method of dealing with them directly and locally. Human relationships rather than amorphous gargantuan organisations are much better – and the more local the better too.

So, I arrive at the Horsney Delivery Office – which whilst the rest of the world is just stirring, is in full swing. Keith Headland (the local manager) and John Bull (area manager) both greet me and take me into the warehouse. Here there are different functions performed along the long alleyways formed by sorting shelves, or grids (that hold runs) and so on.

When I arrive the post team (lots of staff) are working on the initial sort. All N8 mail comes here from the North and East London sorting office. When the N8 mail gets here it is first sorted into packages, parcels, letters, etc and then into its street areas. Then the staff move to the grids – which are like extended letter racks in rows where the letters are then not only sorted into the delivery runs but put in order. So you can imagine how annoying it would be to get to the end of a long road and then find the last letter you have actually should have been delivered at the other end of the road.

And so on and so on. This isn’t meant to be a blow by blow account of the system – but it is only fair to try and give some idea of the major logistics operation that delivering the post is – and, given the issues I’ve raised, only appropriate to actually come and see the reality myself.

One of the key problems at Hornsey is the lack of space. It really is not easy to do what they do in that little space – but the commercial realities of their existence these days against a competitive market means they cannot (or their central office cannot) accommodate them in better premises.

And that is the real battle – the Royal Mail has to deliver the Universal Post and their competitors do not. And whilst MailWatch will hopefully work together with local offices so that we can together improve local postal services for local people – the bigger question is how they can survive against this playing field and against the backdrop of a Government which seems to be hell bent on destroying our local social fabric by destroying and closing our local post offices.

There is going to be a statement today about further closures. It is lunacy!

Meanwhile, the staff I met this morning seemed really pleased that I had come to see them as previous politicians who had criticised the service had refused all invitations to do so.

Overall, I was much encouraged both by the attitude of the local office (and this is just one of the ones I need to involve) and by the response to my call for people who want to be involved in setting up and running MailWatch West Haringey. If you are interested – please contact me.

I had a meeting with Pat Patel who owns the sub-post office in Hornsey High Street to see what on earth else I can do to try and drum it through the Government’s head about the damage their post offices policies are causing not only the service itself but also the very social fabric of many local communities. (This is also the topic of my latest newspaper column – so I won’t repeat the points made in much more detail there).

We agree on Parliamentary questions and lobbying – but I am grim with doubt that the Labour juggernaut will continue to destroy all before it.