The decision on Post Office closures in the Bristol and Somerset area is due to be announced tomorrow (26th February). The initial plan will be published here, followed by a 6 week consultation period, then an announcement of the final plan for the area.
The consultation process is pretty short, so any local churches or other organisations need to be ready to respond to proposed closures with practical proposals for a local 'outreach' service, if that's going to be feasible in your village or neighbourhood.
UPDATE:
The plan has now been published, you can see it here in full and there are links to 2 supporting documents on this page.
Summary:
A reduction from 389 to 324 post offices, all to comply with 'minimum access' requirements.
77 branches supported which are the only local retailer, 100 are the only local access to cash.
93 out of 100 people whose local branch will close have another PO within a mile
7 branches to be replaced by outreach services:
Brompton Regis
Charlton Horethorne
Churchinford
Kilve
Lydeard St. Lawrence
North Cadbury
Wheddon Cross
Branches earmarked for closure are on p22-4 of the report.
Local closures near Yeovil
Keinton Mandeville
Kingsodon
Sparkford
RNAS Yeovilton
and 5 in Yeovil constituency
Barwick
East Coker
Goldcroft
Haselbury Plucknett
Mudford
Update 2: reaction from local politicians:
David Laws MP
Kevin Davis (Conservative)
The process is a bit of a sod - I think it is a zero sum game, and any saved mean one lost elsewhere.
ReplyDeleteSee the link below, and linked articles.
Which link would that be? ;-)
ReplyDeletethe only excuse for commenting at 4.39am is that you were following the cricket.
Sorry. This one:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.mattwardman.com/blog/2007/10/04/political-implications-of-gordon-browns-decmination-of-the-post-offices/