Vince Cable

The Post Office is shortly to announce its intention to close five more post offices in the Twickenham area (out of 18 in total) on top of two already closed. They have informed local MP Vincent Cable in advance of their intentions and he has embarked on an exercise to consult local residents so that any objections can be filed quickly and appeals made before the deadline: June 21st.

The closure programme is occurring nationally and around one third of post offices will close, subject to local appeals in particular cases. Post Office Counters is losing money and individual post offices are struggling to cope with the loss of business as pensioners and benefit recipients lose their books and payment is made into bank accounts.

The five offices on the Twickenham side of the borough are:

Tangley Park (Nurserylands) the biggest

Priory Road, Hampton

Nelson Road, Whitton

Kingston Road, Hampton Wick

Hampton Road, Twickenham

The postmasters are being compensated as part of the closure package and the Post Office says that the remaining offices will be improved to cope with greater numbers.

Vincent Cable, who has led the opposition to post office closures in parliament, said that: "these closures would be a body-blow to several small shopping centres. In the case of Nurserylands, a whole community would be deprived of a key service with poor communications to alternative offices creating a serious access problem for the elderly and less mobile population. I shall try to gauge public reaction to each of the five closures and, if there is strong local feeling - as I suspect there will be - seek to have some closures revoked. However, the Post Office is free to make these decisions on commercial grounds and we only have limited grounds for appeal through the consumer watchdog, Postwatch. I have been warning for years in parliament that the inevitable consequence of government policy combined with unimaginative Post Office management would be large scale contractions of the Network. Now it is happening".

Dee Doocey, Liberal Democrat GLA candidate, said that she would be campaigning with Vincent Cable particularly on the Hampton post offices, of which two out of three will close: "thousands of elderly people in Hampton and young mums with children in push chairs will now have to walk a mile or get on an unreliable bus to Hampton Hill or Hanworth to collect their pensions or child benefit. The local shopping centres are struggling even now and this will do great damage to the community. I am determined that we should fight this very damaging proposal".