Wednesday 23 January 2008

What's consultation for then?

The list of post office closures just out after the supposed "consultation" phase makes me wonder exactly what that consultation consisted of. Last year there was a list of proposed closures. In a huge number of cases there were active local campaigns, huge petitions and so on, to argue the case for specific post offices. Of the ones I know about directly, I know people were working to save the ones in Aigburth Road and Thurne Way in Liverpool and the Bailey's Lane one in Halewood. And I have read press coverage about campaigns to save others. Yet by the looks of it one has been saved, there is no news yet on a further two, and all the rest - nearly 40 - are to go. In one case I helped collect signatures, standing outside mid afternoon one day. The outlet was amazingly busy and in a parade of shops which also had a lot of traffic. And yet this one is to go. It makes me wonder exactly what sort of an argument would cause a change of mind.