Romsey politicians start petitions in bid to save post office

Caroline Nokes, the Conservative MP for Romsey and Southampton North, and the Test Valley Liberal Democrats started them after it was announced that the Post Office has plans to possibly offload 115 directly owned branches within its network – including the branch in Church Street.

Ms Nokes’ petition has been signed by more than 700 people, with both paper and online versions.

She told the Advertiser: “Joe (Dwyer, county council candidate for Romsey Town) and I have been collecting signatures on a petition which I will present to Ministers and to the Post Office. I was outside the Post Office collecting physical signatures on Saturday morning and will be back again. There are a number of businesses in the town that have also taken paper copies of the petition and are getting customers to sign.

“I popped into the Post Office in Romsey at the weekend and the staff there had heard nothing of the proposals, they were informed at the same time as the public when the PO issued the press release last week. It is an appalling way to treat their staff.

L to R: David Drew, Chairman of Romsey and Southampton North Conservatives; Caroline Nokes MP; Mary Greggains, former Romsey business owner; Joseph Dwyer, Romsey Town HCC candidate (Image: Caroline Nokes MP) READ MORE: Romsey MP Caroline Nokes slams plans to shut Post Office

“Romsey has a higher than average age demographic and a Post Office which still does things like passport checks and driving licence renewals.  It is a service which older people value and you seldom go in there and find there is no queue!

“It is a busy Post Office and much needed for banking services since the Town has lost HSBC, Santander and Barclays.  When those banks closed there were whole chunks of their justification which made reference to the Post Office just round the corner.

“Certainly when I was talking to residents last weekend they were horrified that the Post Office could be lost.

“What matters now is that we get some clarity from the Post Office as to the criteria they are using in deciding which Post Offices stay open, and what sort of timescale they will make the decision in.”

Mr Dwyer said: “I have spoken to a number of the businesses nearby and they do use the services (of the post office). It is always extremely busy, and there are long queues, and if it were to elsewhere it would only make the problems worse.

“People do still use it and it is not just about sending letters, which a lot of people think it is. There’s a lot of banking services in there, foreign exchange, which people utilise, especially when the banks closed in Romsey. They both said, Santander and Barclay, they said that the post office would be there for the services that were closing and only two years on that seems to have fallen by the wayside. It’s a very sudden change in what people can access in the town if it should close.”

Mr Dwyer went on to warn that, if the post office closed, it would lead to a “hollowing out” of the town centre. He said: “It would become more of a leisure area, which is a real shame”.

The Test Valley Liberal Democrats have also launched a petition objecting to the possible closure. Cllr Sandra told the Advertiser: “We don’t know if there are any plans to put a sub-Post Office in Romsey. Having spoken to a few people about this, what a lot of people want is to retain a Crown Post Office, which has the full range of services.

The Liberal Democrats have also launched a petition in a bid to save the Post Office (Image: Sandra Gidley) SEE ALSO: 'Another nail in the coffin': Business owners react to post office closure threat

“The problem with closing down the existing unit is I can’t think of another unit that has the space, really, to incorporate a Post Office. We’re all working in the dark at the moment.

“I think (the proposed closure) is appalling. I think it is completely misguided. I am not 100 per cent saying that the Post Office in this location must stay forever, but if we can have a Post Office with the same services, i.e. a Crown Post Office, and there is clarity where in a central location it will go, then that is a different matter. Part of the reason to get a petition going was to show the strength of feeling for retaining the Post Office”.

Cllr John Critchley, of Romsey Town Council, said: “It is instrumental that a Crown Post Office remains in Romsey.”

The Lib Dems petition can be signed by visiting testvalleylibdems.org.uk/postoffice, while Ms Nokes’ petition can be signed by going to carolinenokes.com/campaigns/save-our-post-office.