24th April 2007
Campaign saves Post Office from closure
Thorogate Post Office in Rawmarsh will remain open following a four month campaign to secure its future, it was announced today.
The Post Office based in Weldricks Chemist, and housed within the Medical Centre at Thorogate, provides a range of important services to local residents, especially many elderly people, who were up in arms at the thought of losing it.
Residents contacted their MP John Healey back in December when they’d been told that the Post Office would close and asked him to fight to keep it open.
After listening to their concerns, Mr Healey investigated the situation further and was told that Weldricks had decided to close the Post Office as they needed the extra space for a new consultation area - so the MP wrote and met with the Operations Director face to face to press the case.
Weldricks agreed to do all they could to keep the Post Office open and both Mr Healey and Weldricks approached GPs housed in the same building, who agreed to provide the additional space, but in the end they couldn’t agree terms with Weldricks.
Mr Healey said:
“I welcome Weldricks readiness to rethink the decision and their recognition that they took on the Post Office service with their Pharmacy franchise. And I pay to tribute to local residents who were determined to see their Post Office stay open.”
Weldricks then worked with the MP to seek a solution to enable the Post Office to remain within the chemist, and agreed it may be possible to remove one of the two service counters, thereby creating the extra space needed and retaining the Post Office counter.
But negotiations stalled after the Post Office insisted Weldricks install a new service counter - sourced from the Post Office itself - at a cost of over £10,000, instead of modifying the existing service counter, at an affordable cost of around £2,000, as Weldricks planned.
Furthermore the Post Office’s condition of installation of a new open counter system would have meant staff would lose the secure, screened protection which is typical of many Post Office counters and well-known to customers.
In a letter to Post Office chiefs, Mr Healey said:
“I quite accept Weldricks’ view that this extra cost cannot be justified in financial terms by the business. And furthermore, I am concerned about the safety of both staff and customers, as the Post Office could be susceptible to the sort of opportunist attack that an open desk may well encourage and the current security screens certainly discourage.”
In his letter, Mr Healey went on to say:
“All parties have approached the threat of the loss of post office services at Thorogate very constructively to date and I do not want to see the Post Office itself responsible for closure because of an inappropriate and unnecessarily inflexible approach over the question of counter arrangements.”
This led to the Post Office looking at the situation again. After taking security advice, the Post Office have confirmed in discussions with the MP that they are happy with Weldricks proposals to provide a single screen counter service.
In a discussion with John Healey MP the Post Office’s Network Development Manager said that they had tried to make their decision in the best interests of the area.
Negotiations between Weldricks and the Post Office have now concluded in agreement.
Mr Healey said:
“After months of meetings and negotiations we finally have all round agreement to safeguard the future of Thorogate Post Office. The threat of closure has been lifted and I pay tribute to the readiness of directors at both Weldricks and the Post Office to respond flexibly to the arguments I’ve made on behalf of local Rawmarsh residents.”
- ENDS -
Notes to editors:
If you wish to arrange an interview with a local resident, who is a regular user of the Post Office, or for more information, please contact:
Joanne Wilson, Research Officer to John Healey MP Tel - (01709) 512463