Residents urged to fight for their Post Office

Controversial plans to shut Hammersmith Broadway Post Office and relocate it into a stationer's shop a third of a mile away look set to go ahead unless more local residents make their views clear to the Post Office.

Hammersmith residents look set for longer post office queues as another round of closures strikes the borough.

The transfer of vital services from the busy branch to a franchise inside WH Smith in King's Mall has been slammed by residents, councillors and the local MP.

Hammersmith & Fulham Council and local MP's have been jointly spearheading a campaign to save the popular branch after the Post Office announced a 'consultation' on the issue. Hammersmith & Fulham MP Greg Hands summoned Post Office managers to Parliament this week to outline concerns.

Cllr Stephen Greenhalgh, Hammersmith & Fulham Council leader, said, "It makes no sense to move a well positioned popular post office out of the second busiest transport interchanges in London to a secluded off street location. Tucking a few counters away inside WH Smith will annoy and inconvenience everyone, especially older residents and wheelchair users who will have a long trek up the high street."

This latest blow to local post offices comes hot on the heels of branch closures at the Crown Post Office on North End Road and smaller outlets on Blythe Road and Brackenbury Road.

Kamran Mallick, from Hammersmith & Fulham Action on Disability (HAFAD), said, "We're very concerned about the impact this will have on disabled people and will be making our views known to the Post Office although they didn't bother to tell us about the consultation. The alternative site they are proposing is not suitable. In bad weather, when the roads are treacherous, visually impaired people and wheelchairs users will struggle to get to the new site."

Cllr Greenhalgh concludes, "The current location is one of the best in London as it's located within the tube and bus station complex combined with rare wheelchair access thanks to its excellent lifts and escalators. To make people traipse across the busy gyratory and up King Street will be daunting to many people with mobility problems. Just because there are no steps into WH Smith doesn't mean it's accessible."

The consultation on the future of the service ends on August 10th 2006.

Residents who would like to make their views known to the Post Office should email consultation@royalmail.com.

July 31, 2006