please empty your brain below

They have already closed most of them down round here in west London, and the rest are now in the back of shops.

If you've got a fast internet connection, then this map shows all the post offices that remain in London. Red crosses are scheduled for closure, while green stars survive.
Maps for the rest of the UK appear here.

Quote: "I'll still be able to go and stand in a gloomy concrete cuboid and watch paint peel while queueing for ages to buy stamps from someone who doesn't quite understand English."

Diamond, I think you've said it all. That's why nobody wants to go to a post office, especially as you'll be standing in a queue where somebody is paying in the takings of 3 slot machine arcades in pennies. If post offices concentrated on selling stamps and postal services instead of insurance to Wendy Richards and a credit card you wouldn't be seen dead using, they might have a bit of success.

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My nearest is closing too apparently....so much for being in the trendy so called "Village area" of Walthamstow.

Like you, my local post office is safe from the chop. But like yours, it's never a fun experience to go in. I've only once seen it with no queue (I think I must have got lucky); usually it's right out the door and into the shopping centre.

I can't see how closing other local offices will help the situation.

I don't visit the Post Office any more, as I can't stand the patronising "Cashier number 3 please" announcement system they have in there.

Why shouldn't London have closures?

many, many Post Offices have already been closed all over rural England, resulting in the heart being ripped out of many small communities.

If the 'Government' can nationalise Northern Rock, it's time they started looking at the Post Office network in the same way.

I never implied that London was a special case. I'd just as quickly stand up for the post office in the Suffolk village where I used to live.

It would be a shame if the Orford Road Post Office were to close, we have already lost Grove Road and Wood Street is not exactly convenient nor desireable.
The first step towards yet another restaurant???

In Enfield, they plan to close three post offices, along with this one in Cheshunt (not counted in the 169 as it's just outside Greater London). In addition, the Waltham Cross branch has been moved from its convenient location by the bus station to a less convenient location inside WHSmith's. The Cheshunt & Waltham Cross post offices are the main ones in the area.

So much for 'public consultation periods'. Once the closure of a post office is decided in a boardroom somewhere, that post office inevitably seems to be doomed...

We had one of these so called 'consultation processes' last year in Portsmouth.

A number of city post offices were to close. "Tell us about it" said the PO. We did. They still closed them.

Which isn't sooo bad as there are still plenty of other post offices around the city, & many of their once exclusive serivces are available from corner shops - of which we still have many.

Fortunately for us there's a large PO within easy walking distance. If I time my visits right I can get in, get a parcel weighed, paid for & in the mail in a few minutes. But then, I'm still able bodied, & have all day to spend doing such things should I wish.

It's them in rural areas I really feel sorry for. Though I expect that as they've chosen to live in rural areas, they have cars to get them to increasingly rare services!

Good point about not everyone having internet banking. About 9 months ago I switched almost everything to online and paperless. Last month, needing to remortgage, I had to prove who I was with two utility bills from the past 6 months. I couldn't!

Unfortunately my local is not closing down.

I'd volunteer it for closure though, due to the useless, arrogant people behind the counter who open whenever it suits them, 'lose' packages and play awful music.

Want to swap?

Local services should be paid for from local taxation. If you want to keep the local post offices open, then stand at the next election on the grounds of increased council tax. Then we'll see how much these post offices are really valued.

But my local post offices aren't paid for from local taxation, so standing at the next election wouldn't do any good (and would be too late to save them anyway).

They shut the main PO in Grays and relocated it to WH Smiths.

The chavs can pick up a little something on the way out after cashing their giros now.

I use the sub post office a few miles away now, it's nice to go somewhere that your business is actually appreciated.

I'm afraid the consultation never really goes in front of the people who have the ability to make a difference.

If the PO still had the same facilities for selling TV licences, bill paying, etc they had a few years back, then these branches wouldn't haven't to close. The government's own numbers roughly bear this out.

Must visit Malmesbury Road quick...didn't know it existed. Clearly I am not paying enough attention to the dots on my A-Z. You should ask your postperson about whether people use the Post Office nowadays. He or she will give a much more informed opinion than that coming from the spivs and crooks whom the government have appointed to look after their own firm. And of course, Postcom, which is stuffed full of free enterprise people,appointed by the same craven government, who have their own agenda in smashing up the Post Office and plundering its pension fund and land assets.

It's what you expect when competing firms are allowed to siphon off the profitable parts of a public service business.
There was a time when this kind of laissez-faire economics was considered A Bad Thing because those who were adversely affected were the ones least able to deal with it. Now it's called "the market" and is A Good Thing.
My advice: just don't get old, ill or poor; and certainly not all three.

Miko is dead on: If the PO still had the same facilities for selling TV licences, bill paying, etc they had a few years back, then these branches wouldn't haven't to close.

Over the last few years, the government hasd been trying to make the Post Office/Royal Mail more like a private business. Untill it started this process, it was profitable, but now it make a loss every year. As always, when the government decides to increase private sector involvement, it shoots itself in the foot.

"Over the last few years, the government hasd been trying to make the Post Office/Royal Mail more like a private business. Untill it started this process, it was profitable, but now it make a loss every year. As always, when the government decides to increase private sector involvement, it shoots itself in the foot." Nickoli

So true! "public service" is not what the Post Office about anymore... Why the staff is always so rude??? Why do you have to spend so long queuing?

Instead of closing, maybe "re-organising" or "re-training" staff might work as fine...

"Why do you have to spend so long queuing?" - Marion

Oh no, that's quite right and proper.It helps train us to be British and good at queuing. Unfortuneatly, as less and less of us need to go to the P.O., or as often, we get less pratice and lose some of cultural identity.

"Oh no, that's quite right and proper.It helps train us to be British and good at queuing. Unfortuneatly, as less and less of us need to go to the P.O., or as often, we get less pratice and lose some of cultural identity." - Nickoli

Ok, I plead guilty, I'm French!

Did anyone else spot that all three PO's in the Houses of Parliament are staying open?

Well, up here in (windy, rainy, sleety) Dunoon, I now have to travel two miles to the local Co-op, as they've just closed the lovely, efficient and BUSY sub-Post Office on Hillfoot Street. And I don't want to have to drive to the Co-op three times a week to post parcels to fellow BookMoochers (BookMooch.com - it's wonderful!). So I walk, or cycle, and get drenched, but at least I have that choice. What do elderly/disabled people do? The Post Office should be a public service, not a profit-making venture! Grrrr ...











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