Camden News: Englands Lane | THREATENED post office services could be run from Camden’s libraries under a new rescue plan being discussed at the Town Hall.

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Camden News - by RICHARD OSLEY
Published: 19 June 2008

Englands Lane post office was closed this week

‘Put post offices in our libraries’

Town Hall boss suggests a new solution as latest branch closes to customers

THREATENED post office services could be run from Camden’s libraries under a new rescue plan being discussed at the Town Hall.
Liberal Democrat council chief Councillor Keith Moffitt said the fight to retain “vital” services would go on amid fading hopes that the Post Office will have a late change of heart and keep operating the four Camden branches on its hit-list.
Cllr Moffitt’s fighting talk came in the same week that the programme of cuts began to take effect with the closure of the Englands Lane branch in Belsize Park on Tuesday afternoon.
“We will seek out suitable council premises, such as libraries to co-locate with postal services” said Cllr Moffitt. “We think drawing together local amenities such as these may be a way to retain access for all our residents to these vital services.
“The council has strongly opposed post office closures in the borough and time and time again put the case to Post Office Limited for keeping open these vital assets of our communities.
Cllr Moffitt’s update was delivered to Monday’s full council meeting as a cross-party consensus forms in opposition to the closure of the Englands Lane branch and the axing of offices in Highgate, Somers Town and South End Green – all of which will shut up shop over the next seven days. Legal challenges have stalled in attempts to get the Post Office to reverse its decision and there is a belief among some councillors that compensation packages have been too tempting to turn down for postmasters.
Rival councillors have argued out a blame game debate in which everyone from the Labour Government, the European Union and the council itself have been accused of not doing enough. But there is no disagreement among members over whether the offices should be saved or not.
Labour councillor Theo Blackwell said: “The council has taken as stand on this issue. I have no doubt there is concern. I just wonder whether the stand the council has taken could have been more forceful at an earlier stage.”
Conservative councillor Chris Philp said: “These important resources need to be saved.” Green councillor Alex Goodman added: “There is no rational reason for the Post Office to be doing this. The Highgate office is a financially viable office, but the amount of compensation being offered makes it unviable in comparison.”
Cllr Goodman said he suspected the cuts were part of a wider plan to introduce more market forces into the service. A post office is already run by a private company in Kentish Town.
Camden is now among the front-runners signing up to the Post Office’s so-called “Urban Outreach” programme which could see smaller outlets open in places such as libraries and churches across the country. The idea has already been dubbed “Post Office Lite” by sceptics.
Camden wants to be given a chance to pilot the scheme, possibly in Highgate where concerns that the elderly and vulnerable will have to battle against the naturally hilly terrain to get to the post office have been repeatedly raised.
Cllr Moffitt added: “We are one of the first councils in the country to be registering an interest in this.”

Sweets, but a bitter taste over closure

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