Post Offices: will Wandsworth follow the Essex lead?

Essex County Council has been negotiating with the post Office to take over the running of Post offices in their county. The BBC are covering the story here.

This issue has already been the subject of some debate on the Putney SW15 website; it's also something that Labour Councillors in Wandsworth have been investigating.

The Essex plan is important because so few local Post Offices win reprieves once they have been tagged for closure. It's of course important that any deal between the Post Office and Council Tax payers don't just end up subsidising the branches instead of national taxpayers (every week, the Post Office needs a £2million subsidy).

I'd like Wandsworth Council to look at a similar deal to save the Lower Richmond Road and Putney Bridge Road Post Office branches. Whether or not they have the courage to follow Essex County Council's lead, there are other ways the council could support Post Offices - by making it possible for residents to collect council benefits and pay council tax or rent at local branches; even by combining housing offices with post offices, possibly as part of a one-stop-shop facility for the community. There are so many innovative and enterprising possibilities here.

I commend Essex County Council - a Conservative-run authority - for its innovation. It seems to me that this is now a fundamental test for Wandsworth's Conservative council. Are they genuinely committed to saving local Post Office branches and doing the right thing for local people - or in fact do they actually want to see the Post Offices closed so that local Conservatives can continue to play politics?

Why not attend the public meeting the Council's holding this Thursday at St Mary's Church, 7.30pm and find out?