Response to consultation
Anita Turner,
Network Development Manager
C/o National Consultation Team,
1st April 2008
Dear Anita Turner,
I wish to make a submission to the Network Change consultation relating to the 5 post offices in the Kingston and Surbiton constituency that are proposed should close. I would be grateful if you could acknowledge receipt of this submission.
To summarise, I and my constituents are opposed to ALL the proposed closures of post offices in Kingston and Surbiton. We have had to suffer too many closures already in recent years - from South Lane to Ewell Road, from the Crown Offices we used to have in Kingston, Surbiton and Tolworth to the offices at Malden Manor, Chiltern Drive and Berrylands Road. We believe these past closures should be taken into account when analysing why we should suffer another major round of closures.
I am making this submission on behalf of thousands of my constituents, having spoken to many individuals and businesses, having received over 100 letters and petitions - with a combined total of over five thousand signatures - and having organised two well-attended public meetings. Indeed, I have worked together on this with the local newspapers, especially the Surrey Comet, as well as other local politicians and community leaders. I have never known such a response and a campaign that has united the community and the political parties. Therefore, I believe my submission is highly representative, has huge backing and is well-researched. I am happy to send you the petitions and individual letters if you wish, but believe this submission captures the arguments and concerns.
I recognise that you are primarily interested in special reasons why a particular post office should not be closed, rather than general issues, and the main thrust of my submission below does this. However, since our view is that none of our local post offices should close, I wanted to start by emphasising a number of issues which local people feel strongly about, that cover all our local offices. These are:
- the overall impact on the local community. Post offices are often the centre of a local neighbourhood's life - in terms of the day-to-day contact that many local residents have with each other. This can be particularly important for some elderly and disabled people. If people have to travel much further to their local post office, this can undermine an important part of the local social fabric.
- the impact on vulnerable groups. The elderly, the disabled, the ill and young mothers with pre-school children can be especially hit by a post office closure. Not only are the frequent users of post offices, but they can find it difficult if not impossible to travel the extra distances required. Sometimes this can involve special problems where the post office was the only nearby access to cash and other banking services.
- the impact on businesses. Our area has a high number of people who work from home, with many small businesses who rely on the local post office, and they will be badly hit. Other high street businesses in the parades of shops where these local post offices are will also lose out. There can also be security issues, for the banking of cash in some cases. New Economic Foundation research, in 2006, on the effect of post office closures in urban areas found that the post offices both generated income on local spending on services and goods whilst saving small businesses in their direct vicinity in the region of £270,000 each year.
- the impact on quality of service in remaining post offices. Already a number of local post offices have extremely long queues - and these are reported to have been getting worse - not least after the last round of closures. This of course means that the elderly, disabled and ill who manage to trek further to the next post office have to wait longer in queues.
To add to this, there are other general issues about your consultation - most significantly, the data you have used on the elderly and disabled population living near to each branch. I note that you have used an extremely broad category for the pensioner population - namely 60/65s and over - and that this fails to capture the significant difference when people are in their late 70s, 80s and 90s. I would urge you to find better data to subdivide the pensioner population to get a better feel of the impact on the elderly of your proposals. I note you have NO data on the local disabled population - an issue I wish to return to in some of the specific points below.
There are other general issues which I could mention, but I would draw to your attention my comments made in the Commons over the last 2 years, when I spoke as the Liberal Democrats' Spokesman on Trade and Industry.
I now turn to the specific issues, around the specific closures:
1. Surbiton Road Post Office ( your consultation refers to this as "Surbiton Park" )
Without the Surbiton Road Post Office, there is a real concern that both the nearest offices - the large offices at Kingston and at Surbiton - would face real capacity problems, with already long queues becoming dangerously longer. This is especially acute for the Victoria Road branch in Surbiton.
This concern has several elements.
First, we believe the usage figures in your consultation document seriously underestimate how many people regularly use this branch. It serves a large population of elderly people living nearby - especially in Penryhn Road and and in Haylett Gardens - plus a range of small businesses and Kingston University.
Second, the Victoria Road branch has been divided into two recently - whilst this does not effect the numbers of windows, it has reduced the available space for queueing, making it even more uncomfortable. I would suggest that there may well be health and safety issues, and certainly issues for the disabled.
Third, the queues at the Victoria Road post office have already been the cause of a number of complaints I have made over the years. While I have no scientific study to draw upon, it is unarguably the case that I have had more complaints about the queues at Victoria road than at any other post offices, and for a number of years. I have Surbiton constituents who tell me they would rather travel further than use Surbiton, the queues are so frequently long. I reported this to PostWatch sometime ago, though their "mystery shopper" exercise did not show "excessive" queueing, a few years ago. Now I am sure it would. For both the Kingston and Surbiton offices, I receive complaints about queues, even when they are using all their windows and tellers.
I would ask specifically for a reply on both the health and safety aspects and the issues for the disabled, presented by this proposed closure. I believe there is a case that disabled customers in particular will be seriously disadvantaged by the longer queues at the Victoria Road branch, and I would request that you undertake an audit. In this case, I am so concerned that I may be forced to refer any closure that occurs at Surbiton Road to the Equality and Human Rights Commission, primarily for its knock-on effects at Surbiton.
2. Plough Green Post Office
Without the Plough Green Post Office, it will be extremely difficult for local people and businesses to access local post services, with a real concern over financial exclusion.
The consultation paper has some basic errors in its facts for this post office, which emerged at the public meeting i organised, and all of these relate to access to services.
First, the nearest post office at Worcester Park is more difficult to get to than the paper said - both in terms of parking problems and the distance from the nearest bust stop. Conversely, the post office at Plough Green is easier to get to than the consultation said - because there is excellent parking (not least in the pub across the road, serviced by a pedestrian crossing) and because the bus stop is nearer than the consultation document claimed. For ease of access analysis, it is worth noting that the next nearest post office is in New Malden, some way away, the other side of the A3, requiring a journey on one of the Borough's busiest and slowest roads. Plus, in recent years other nearby post offices at Malden Manor and South Lane have already been closed. People in the Painters Estate or from Sheephouse Way will have a real distance to travel now, as a result of cumulative closures.
Second, the post office at Worcester Park has got less capacity to take on any business from Plough Green than alleged. First, it has fewer windows or teller positions than the consultation document says. Second, it is already very cramped inside - unlike Plough Green - with real difficulty for disabled people queueing.
Third, besides the post office, there is no other outlet in Plough Green where people can access their cash or undertake any other financial transactions. There is no bank or ATM, for example. People paying their rent will have to travel further. This can have security issues - not least for larger businesses wishing to cash up. I know you are being written to separately on this issue, so in the interests of security and confidentiality, will not elaborate further.
Therefore, I strongly feel the loss of Plough Green will be a real disaster for this community, because they simply cannot access alternative services as easily as your consultation suggests.
3. Norbiton Common Post Office
Without the Norbiton Common Post Office, an area that has some pockets of severe deprivation will be badly hit, and it will be especially difficult for the disabled and elderly to access the nearest alternatives.
While I recognise that the government has laid down some special criteria for deprivation and the need for access to post office, which don't appear to apply to Norbiton Common, I would ask that you dig a little deeper, because I think the data is not telling the full picture. I understand that Councillor Penny Shelton is working with you and RBK to provide more information on this, and I would urge you to look at this data carefully.
While there are post offices at the Triangle and Hawks Road, these are some distance away, and both would involve journies up and down not inconsiderable slopes, especially the walk over the railway bridge to the Triangle. I strongly suspect people may end up going to the post offices in Kingston and New Malden town centres, putting even more pressure on the long queues at those offices.
Moreover, Kingston Road has seen and is likely to see quite a large increase in the number of new dwellings. The Council can give your more information, but i suspect the numbers of users is likely to increase considerably in the coming years.
The post office is on the edge of Beverely and Norbiton wards, and in a neighbourhood with some complex issues, and I am genuinely shocked that you should be proposing to shut this office.This is a post office that is well-used and is valued by local residents some of whom are in real need.
4. Hook Rise South
Without the Hook Rise South Post Office, a large residential area of my constituency will be without a local post office, and a significant number of pensioners and people with disabilities will have difficult journies to make to the nearest alternatives.
It is especially important to understand the geography and road layout of the community currently served by the Hook Rise South Post Office. While this is a relatively small Post Office, the community borders the busy A3, which acts as a real barrier for anyone on foot and results in extra long car journies for those who drive, as service roads and one way streets prevent more direct routes. If people were to go towards Hook and Chessington, rather than Tolworth, they have to go down a relatively steep hill. I do not believe the consultation document fully recognises the practical problems losing this post office will mean for many of my constituents.
This office is particularly suited for disabled people, not least because it has a disabled parking bay nearby. There are few other post offices in the whole of Kingston that enjoy such a disabled parking bay nearby
5. Burlington Road
Without the Burlington Road Post Office, the queues in the Post Office in New Malden will grow and a large residential area and a large number of small businesses will be seriously disadvantaged.
After the post office in Victoria Road, Surbiton, I get most complaints about queues at the Crown Post Office, New Malden. Burlington Road is itself a busy office, so the idea that the Crown Office can easily absorb this extra custom is absurd in my view. So closing the Burlington Road office won't only inconvenience its users but literally thousands of residents across New Malden.
Burlington Road is also home to a large number of small retail outlets and other small businesses who depend on this post office and will be badly hit if it is lost.
Note on Tolworth Broadway Post Office
An issue that is not part of the consultation, but which is vital to my constituents, is the future of the post office at Tolworth Broadway.
This post office was temporarily closed last year due to the then subpostmaster not due to a decision by yourselves. I have been in regular contact and have met one of your senior managers, Sue Huggins, about this. We have worked together on trying to encourage more people to apply to run a post office on the Broadway.
I was pleased when the consultation did not include Tolworth Broadway for closure, but we are still waiting for news about when it might re-open. I would be extremely grateful for an update. If you do decide to close any of the 5 post offices, can you confirm that you will formally invite those subpostmasters and subpostmistresses affected to apply to run a post office on Tolworth Broadway?
Concluding Remarks
I am grateful to staff of Post Office Limited who have assisted myself and others, particularly at evening meetings. i have always made clear that this policy of closure is not their fault, and that it is fundamentally a decision by Government.
Nonetheless, it is in the power of your consultation to make adjustments to your original proposals. I would hope this could involve reducing the total number of post office closures. Yet if that is not possible, I hope you will drop some or all of the Kingston closures, simply because of the combined and cumulative impact of the past and proposed post office closure plan. We feel as if we are being targeted for a larger number of cuts than elsewhere in London.
The petitions we have collected have been presented to Kingston Council, and I will be presenting them also to the House of Commons on Thursday 3rd April. Please let me know if you want further copies.
I remain happy to meet anyone from your organisation to elaborate on these points. I cannot stress enough how important this issue is to so many of my constituents, and I hope you will therefore reprieve some or all of the 5 post offices under threat of closure.
Yours sincerely,
Edward Davey MP
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