North London says: Hands off our Crowns’

Postal March 10 2016

Around 70 local residents braved a rainy north London night to attend a public meeting on plans to franchise two local Crown Post Offices.

Muswell Hill and Crouch End are among the large number of Crowns around the UK that are set to be handed over to commercial retailers, in a process that the CWU has described as “privatisation by stealth.”

Last night’s meeting was one of a series of gatherings aimed at raising public awareness of the threat to their local services and developing community campaigns to protect Crown Offices.

As well as organising meetings, campaigners have been out and about on the high streets of towns and cities warning the public of the threat to their services and asking them to sign protest petitions.

CWU North/North West London Branch secretary Kevin Carey said that he and fellow activists have “been out for the last three Saturdays and the response has been very supportive.

“Around 1,000 people have signed our protest petition so far and we’ll be out again this Saturday,” he added.

Opening his speech to the meeting, CWU assistant secretary Andy Furey described Post Office management’s strategy as one based on “saving money by dumbing down the service.”

Handing over Crown Office operations to commercial retailers means customers “won’t get a quality service,” he warned, explaining that skilled, trained and experienced Post Office counter staff would be replaced by untrained staff on minimum wage pay rates.

He criticised the record of the largest franchiser of Crown Offices, WH Smiths, saying: “They’ve taken over 100 post offices in the last few years and they’re not about improving the service, but about using the post office outlet within their stores to increase footfall into their shops.”

Andy pointed out that there have been several successful campaigns to save Crown offices and told the audience that “the best campaigns are those led by the community.

“It’s great to have the support of so many residents as well as the MP and the council and we need to build on tonight and convince the Post Office that this isn’t what the people want.”

Local Member of Parliament Catherine West (Hornsey & Wood Green) spoke next, explaining that she was committed to supporting this campaign because “local people work in the Post Office – and in the delivery office – and these are people in our community. We want to support people’s jobs and I’m here to defend jobs and our local services.”

Ms West added that her constituency office was “very happy to help with co-ordinating campaign activities” and urged members of the audience to consider offering to help too if they had some spare time.

At Westminster, the MP has been asking Parliamentary Questions and other colleagues are trying to get an adjournment debate, she continued, and added that she is trying to arrange a meeting with Post Office Minister Baroness Neville-Rolfe, to which she will take along with her a group of constituents.

“These public services all make us more of a community – we want no reduction of service,” she insisted.

A lively question and answer session included queries over the identity of the proposed franchise partner and people’s experiences elsewhere of franchised post offices, while fears were also expressed that if the Crown offices go, then other shops in the vicinity could go as well.

Many residents were confused about the separation of Royal Mail from the Post Office and, once this had been explained by Andy, other contributors described separation as illogical, with one saying: “Surely they need each other” and another asking whether there is a “conflict between the pursuit of private profit and a good quality public service.”

Several members of the audience, including a representative from the Crouch End Neighbourhood Forum, pledged their support and asked what action the community should take, and after the meeting, many of them signed up to volunteer their efforts with the campaign.

Speaking at the end of the meeting, Kevin Carey said: “I’m really pleased by how tonight’s gone. It’s been an excellent turnout – bigger than expected considering the weather – and there were some very positive and practical ideas from people on how we take this forward.

“A great kick-start.”

Lower Edmonton – https://www.facebook.com/groups/442797545929341/

Crouch End – https://www.facebook.com/groups/1662057877396322/

Muswell Hill – https://www.facebook.com/groups/793534577445622/