Crown campaign spreads nationwide

Postal March 15 2016

Community campaigns against Post Office franchising are getting off the ground across the UK, with residents in northeast England, western Wales, London, and the south coast holding public meetings and protests in defence of their Crowns.

CWU assistant secretary Andy Furey reports: “The last week or so has seen people in all parts of the country standing up and making clear that they won’t accept this reduction in service from a company that is still publicly owned.

“I’ve been surprised by the level of opposition that we’ve seen in such diverse locations, from Durham across to Aberystwyth and all the way down to Sussex as well as north and south London.”

Andy spoke at two residents’ meetings last week, alongside Members of Parliament, borough councillors, CWU members and community activists at Durham Town Hall and in Hornsey, north London.

“It was great to hear City of Durham MP Roberta Blackman-Woods setting out why she’s adamantly opposed to the franchising plan,” he said, adding that a full report of the meeting was carried in the Northern Echo, which quoted Ms Blackman-Woods warning: “If this franchising goes ahead, we are at risk of losing key services in Durham City and a vital part of the city’s infrastructure.”

The Hornsey meeting to defend the Crouch End and Muswell Hill Crown Offices was also backed by the area’s MP, Catherine West (Hornsey & Wood Green), who said: “I’m here to defend people’s jobs and our local services.”

Postal executive members Lynn Simpson and Ian Ward represented the union at similar gatherings in Aberystwyth, Ceredigion, and Walworth, south London, respectively.

According to Lynn, the evening meeting in Aberystwyth attracted “over 60 members of the public, across all ages and with quite a high number of younger people.”

Town Mayor Endaf Edwards chaired the proceedings, which included speeches from Ceredigion’s Member of Parliament Mark Williams and its Welsh Assembly Member Elin Jones as well as several election candidates.

“A lively debate took place after the speeches and there was a clear consensus in the room with regards to fighting the franchise,” Lynn continues and points out that, “if Aberystwyth Crown Post Office is lost, there is not another Crown office for 70 miles in either direction.

“A campaign group was set up among volunteers at the end of the meeting. There are various campaign activities planned, including a march on Saturday, and we’re going to use Welsh language as well as English.”

CWU Wales regional secretary Gary Watkins said: “Aberystwyth is a long way from any other town of any size and our local Crown Office is a vital part of the community.

“We’re determined to do our best to save it and Saturday’s march is a community-organised protest that I’ve been invited to speak at. People are assembling from 10.30am on Saturday and we’re hoping as many people as possible will be able to come along.

“The fight here is on – mae’r brwydr yn dechrau!”

Down in south London, Crown Post Office protesters met on a Saturday morning in St Peter’s Church, Walworth, to discuss how to save their local office from franchising.

Councillor Eleanor Kerslake (Newington) and MP Neil Coyle (Bermondsey & Old Southwark) joined Ian Ward as platform speakers, while Jeremy Leach of the Walworth Society chaired the meeting.

Neil said how “disappointed” he was that the Post Office had refused to send a company representative to speak at the meeting and he went on to warn of the detrimental effect that franchising will have on public service quality and also its effect on staff and wages.

“I want to hear what you have to say and I’ll take your views back to the Post Office,” he promised the audience.

Many members of the audience spoke up, voicing their own concerns about the effect on the community of losing the facility, with another common view being that people did not believe the Walworth Road office could be losing money and that there was no business case for the proposal.

Ian pointed out that the union had repeatedly asked Post Office management for facts and figures but had not been given any information. “We’re challenging the business all the time on this,” he said, and added that Walworth Road was a very busy office. “I was in there at this morning at 9.15 and it was already very busy, with long queues,” he said.

In her contribution, Eleanor confirmed that it is a much-used facility, saying: “People are very reliant on their local Crown Post Office.”

She emphasised how important it is to campaign as strongly as possible against the plan and thanked everyone for attending.

“This is the start of the campaign. Please tell your friends and neighbours to get involved,” she urged.

Down in Sussex, residents have held lively public protests in Lewes and Bognor in defence of their Crown offices, which have been widely reported in their respective local media.

And the CWU is urging members, activists and supporters in all towns and communities affected by these changes to become involved in protests and local campaigns.

Andy Furey says: “There’s a lot happening in various parts of the country and past experience shows that, if we get organised and win broad support, then we can save offices.

“We need to get active, lively campaigns up and running in every single location where a Crown office is under threat.”