We contact Devon County councillors – their responses

Yesterday, ‘Save our Post Offices’ contacted every councillor on Devon County Council.  We made the case that the council should save the Post Offices, and advised them to look at the example of Essex County Council, where threatened Post Offices had been saved.

At the time of writing (8.11pm on 22nd May), 11 councillors have responded.  Overall, the response is good, with most promising to campaign against the closures.  Council leader Brian Greenslade replied that “I can assure you that Devon County Council has been very engaged with this issue for some time and I think you may well find we are as developed or indeed more developed in our thinking than Essex County Council.”.

A couple of councillors raised the point that the mass closures had begun under the Tories.  One noted ruefully that the New Labour government “seems to aspire to similar socially divisive instincts” as the Tory government did.  Others made arguments about the impact the removal of certain services such as the payment of pensions on the Post Offices.

Only one councillor mentioned the ‘consultation’ process, though they had no illusions that it would stop the closures, saying that “the fear that I have is the threat that if you save one, the Post Office will close another”.

A councillor from Tiverton noted the “long queues and very sad people” in a local Post Office, caused by the closure of another Post Office.  This is an important reminder that the closures don’t only affect the particular area where the Post Office is lost, but other areas too where the service may become overstretched.

There was a mixed and generally unenthusiastic response to our call for the ‘Essex solution’ whereby the council takes over the threatened Post Offices.  Some claimed that the Essex scheme was not as good as it seemed, others (including Cllr. Greenslade) seem to be promising a refined and “developed” version.  There are indeed problems with aspects of the Essex approach.  However, we do not ask the County Council to follow the Essex approach to the letter, but merely in principle, the principle being that the council save the threatened Post Offices and then provide support to develop them.