Southdown Post Office, Not If But When?
By debbigg | Thursday, July 08, 2010, 11:43
It’s no secret that Southdown is to get a new Post Office but when it’s going to happen appears to be.
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The Southdown community would like to know when they will have their new Post Office counter.
The uncertainty of an opening date is upsetting the local community, who have tirelessly fought to get a Post Office reinstated in Southdown after losing the one in Balfour News, which shut down over eighteen months ago. Although local residents and the local businesses community know that the Post Office will be part of the Co-op’s refit of the Somerfield store, they have been left hanging as to exactly when they will be able to benefit from the new counter service.
Local shopkeepers first heard that the new Post Office would be in place in June, whilst they have now been told that September is the new likelihood. A member of staff at the Somerfield store told me that it would be August, so does anyone actually know what the official aim is?
One local shop owner told me that there is already an anti-Co-op feeling brewing within the close Southdown Community. Firstly the retail giant were the owners of Balfour News, which they shut at short notice, and now there is a feeling that they are dragging their feet with the new Post Office.
In the meantime, residents and local businesses are having to use Post Offices further afield. This includes the elderly, who bought retirement properties in Southdown with the feature of a Post Office being in the local vicinity.
Paul Russell of Southdown Hardware said: “I’m looking forward to the Post Office opening and to binging the people back who have missed it. It’s amazing how many people do miss it.”
Have you heard any rumours about timing of the new Post Office. Are you an employee of the Co-op store with the inside track? Update the local community below:
Comments
20 AUG 2010 CoOp now recruiting staff for the Post Office. But no further details.
By Portraits & Packshots Co. at 15:25 on 24/08/10
ReportCo-op, arguably the most hated of the supermarket chains, has behaved despicably over this. Their website claimed that they serve the community, but when all Balfour needed was a lick of paint and new management they closed the Post Office and store causing many redundancies. It also forced the local community to travel miles to queue up for inferior post office services. Disgraceful and inexcusable.
On 24 November 2008 I wrote the following to the press at the start of the petition campaign to get the store reinstated in Somerfield/Co-op. Eighteen months later the dinosaur is still stirring, but to be fair the plans were held up to deal with obvious objections from the public including toilet and disabled people access.
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Steve Gledhill, past secretary of the South down-based Cravells Area Residents Association (CARA), said “the Balfour paper shop, convenience store and post office, recently taken over by the Co-op, are vital to our village of Southdown. Everyone I have spoken to locally is angry, shocked and dismayed to learn of the closure. We hope that the rumour that the amenities will soon be provided from the nearby Somerfield, also recently acquired by the Co-op, is true. What a disastrous piece of PR from the Co-op however, the company should have set up the alternative before leaving us all in the lurch. And what will become of local newspaper deliveries?”
The Times ran an article on the Somerfield acquisition in June of this year headlined, 'Co-op chief Peter Marks vows shake-up to give shoppers more choice'. The article included that the fact that the Chief Executive had said, "... the acquisition would provide the 'rocket fuel' for a transformation programme at the Co-op". Closing the Balfour Co-op store is unlikely to give more choice.
http://tinyurl.com/2aqarmr
Steve, a dedicated member of the Harpenden Lions Club, added his personal observation. "At this time I am reminded of one of the Lions Code of Ethics, 'To Remember that in building up my business it is not necessary to tear down another's; to be loyal to my clients or customers and true to myself'." Something that all businessmen would be wise to observe in these difficult times.
See http://tinyurl.com/24j6gjq
By Gledhill Marketing Services at 11:59 on 09/07/10
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