Eaglescliffe Post Office

The Evening Gazette has picked up the story of the Post Office closure now, and the fact that over 4000 homes in the ward don't have a Post Office. About 20 people braved the cold wind on Friday afternoon to take part in a photo for the Gazette and to tell the reporter their tales of why they need an accessible post office. Yarm PO being overcrowded, difficulties with parking, problems with the buses all featured in their tales. One couple, unable to face the traffic queue and parking problem in Yarm had followed the Post Office's advice and gone to Ingleby Barwick. Once there they couldn't find the post office so they turned round and drove to Hartburn!
Meanwhile we're pursuing a couple of possible locations for a replacement though with little help from the Post Office.

Eaglescliffe Post Office RIP

Our Post Office closed today at lunch time and although Post Office Counters say it's only temporary till someone else takes it on in suitable premises the options for that are few and diminishing. So residents are faced with the choice of travelling down to Yarm which is already busy and has long queues or into Stockton High St which always seems to have huge queues or driving (if they can) to one of the more outlying offices. It's hard on those pensioners who have a Post Office Card account. It's hard on people who need to have something weighed to get the correct stamps. These are things which the supermarkets don't offer, yet their sales of newspapers and sweets have put the newsagent out of business. Is it the fault of the supermarket or of the shoppers who choose to shop there? I leave it to you to apportion blame. Either way, we've lost our post office and the supermarkets aren't interested in giving up some of their space to accommodate one.
If by any remote chance someone reading this would like to know more about how to take over this successful Post Office the information is available on line or? Post Office doesn't actually give any other way of applying, and just like when the Station Rd office was being closed, it only seems to advertise on the website. It took me almost 5 minutes to find the relevant site so no-one's likely to spot the advert by mistake! Service to the community? I think not.

Highs and Lows

I started today at All Saints school, Ingleby Barwick which was launching its campaign to become a Fairtrade school. What a launch! The whole school had been taken off timetable for a day - Year 10 to do a careers day and the others to do a Fairtrade "Dragons Den meets The Apprentice". They started by meeting a real live millionaire who talked about the things they need to consider when planning their business and then I followed with a talk about why it was important for each one of them to do their bit for Fairtrade. I used some of the slides left by Juan Luis Aviles when he stayed with me in Fairtrade Fortnight this year, and talked about the choices that the co-operative in El Salvador had to make between equipment for cracking nuts or sending the children to school. The students then went off to their groups to plan. There were goods to order, adverts to write, photos to take, profit margins to decide on etc. Some groups were learning a dance to be accompanied by African drummers; others were developing a drama to show to parents while others were producing masks inspired by African designs. At the end of the day there was to be a grand competition with groups bidding for money to put their business plan into action. I couldn't stay for that part of the event but I'm going back in December to see the result - 8 stalls set out to sell their goods to parents, other students, the public and anyone else who'll turn up and spend money. A really exciting idea, helped by having local business people willing to go and get involved with the young people and help them with advice as well as becoming the "dragons" for the later part of the day.
I look forward to them becoming a Fairtrade School next year.
Leaving there on a high I made the mistake of checking my e-mails before starting on anything else. The interim chief executive had been sent a letter informing him that Eaglescliffe Post Office is to close tomorrow - how's that for plenty of notice. It's supposed to be temporary until they find another person and premises but giving us 2 days notice doesn't strike me as a great commitment to the search. However, we'll persevere. We've a couple of ideas for a venue but nothing is going to work before Christmas now I dont think.

Post Office Card Account

Back in June I described the Labour Government's latest threat to the Post Offices of this country. I know that some of you sent in postcards as part of the campaign.
On Monday of this week the Liberal Democrats led an Opposition Day debate on the future of the Post Office Card Account. An Early Day Motion calling on the government to support the Post Offices by keeping the card account with them had been signed by 47 Labour MPs, though not our MP for Stockton South despite her crocodile tears when the Long Newton one was closed. But when faced with the prospect of voting for the same thing in a parliamentary debate they refused and instead voted for an amendment which heaped praise on the government for what it had done for the Post Offices!! They were joined by the Labour faithful, including the MP for Stockton South, thus ensuring that the motion was defeated.
Yesterday, however, the government finally did the decent thing. They listened to the thousands of voices crying out for the card account to be retained at the heart of communities and extended the contract to the Post Office for a further 5 years. So congratulations, Gordon and cronies. At last you've done something right. What a pity you ever put hundreds of sub-postmasters and mistresses through sleepless nights worrying over their livelihood. What a disgrace that you worried thousands of pensioners about who'd help them with their pensions when they had to go somewhere else. Perhaps before you have any further bright ideas about the Post Office you should spend some time doing what I do most Thursdays - stand in a Post Office queue and listen to the Postmaster greet his customers by name, ask after the family, remind them that they usually buy stamps this week or pay the rent or whatever. Then you might see what you were planning to take away.

I had a very interesting conversation with a local stamp collector today who told me that there is an increasing problem for stamp collectors with modern post offices. The post office likes to use sticky labels showing the postage paid rather than sticking stamps on parcels and letters, so increasingly he finds them reluctant to sell an entire sheet of stamps to him. It seems to be part of the drive to efficiency over personal service everywhere and the world is poorer for it.
The Fairtrade Borough Group met at lunch time and as usual we all want to do far more than we have the resources to achieve. Oh for more people with the time to commit to spreading the word. We will have our stall at a Family Fun Day in Thornaby later in the month, as well as a wine tasting event later in the year, but we could do so much more with more time and hands.
The council papers that awaited me at home brought me back to earth with a bump - the agenda for next week's planning committee includes the Allen's West development with a recommendation for approval. I need to read the report very thoroughly before Wednesday afternoon. There are lots of suggested conditions in there and if the application is passed those conditions will be vital to keep the impact on current residents as low as possible.
This application highlights the big problem with planning - it's not really planning but reacting to other people's plans. For the council to have make plans for housing or employment or leisure developments takes 3 years of consultation and refinement and reconsultation, but developers can put in their plans at any time and within 3 months the council has to decide what to do about it (less time if it's a smaller application). Residents and councillors find that very frustrating and I know that some planning officers do too.

Pathways to Healthcare again

Tonight's meeting of the Western Area Partnership Board was taken up to a large extent with a discussion on the Momentum project. This had been mentioned last month but this month we had a presentation and debate which could have gone on for a lot longer. People have real concerns about concentrating services in too few locations, about how the villages will be served when they can't have a GP service, let alone any of the wonderful new services being proposed. There were worries about private sector involvement and some confusion over the difference between the health centres being proposed and privately operated polyclinics being talked about in some parts of the media.
There was a glimmer of hope for Long Newton Post Office, when we heard that the leader of the council has asked council officers to look into the possibility of the council keeping it open. It doesn't seem like a lot to ask - a part-time worker for a few hours a week, purchase the second hand redundant equipment from the Post Office and pay a bit towards the upkeep of the Wilson Institute. We shall see. I'll keep reminding him that it's important to the village community of the Western Area and we don't ask for much from the council.

Another Threat to the Post Office

The Government still hasn't made up its mind about who will run the Post Office Card Account after the present contract expires in 2010. This is the account which replaced the Pension book for many over 60s, allowing them to go to the Post Office as they always had and draw the money out each week. For people like my mother who can't get into her bank branch it's a godsend, helping her to maintain her independence. It's also used for benefit payments and often is the only sensible way for someone on a very low income to manage their money. Because the account doesn't allow overdrafts it's impossible to spend more than you have in the account. But this Labour Government, elected because so many people thought it would look after them better than the previous Conservative one, is failing the people who need it most. They've made it really difficult to find out that such a card is an option, assuming instead that everyone will want to use a bank account. And yet many people, even though they use a bank for other things, value the social networking that goes on in the Post Office. Even those of us who can't imagine needing it at the moment don't know what's going to happen to us in 10 or 20 years time. We might be glad of an account which someone else can draw from and do our shopping but we can ensure that it only gives access to a certain amount of money.

The National Federation of Sub-Postmasters is running a postcard campaign to try to ensure that the Post Office keeps the contract. All you need to do it ask in the Post Office for a card, fill in your name and address and give it back to them. They will send them to the right MP. If you think the card account is important, please do ask. Liberal Democrats strongly believe that only the Post Office can do this job. It's the only body with a wide enough network to support all the people who want to use the card. So please do support the campaign and write to your MP or ask for a card at the Post Office.

The first meeting of the day was at 9 to discuss a number of issues with the Corporate Director of Neighbourhood Services. There was an update on the Local List, which is moving forward at long last but it's probably too little too late for some buildings. Then there was time for a quick chat about some of the possible recommendations from Environment Select, just to make sure that I wasn't going to propose something impractical or unachievable.
At 10 it was time for the meeting of the Select Committee. We had an update on the consultation - more than 3000 people had responded to the survey and the responses have been analysed by wards, age groups & ethnic groups so we've got a really comprehensive picture of public opinion. We had some animated discussion about possible recommendations and agreed that no one solution fits all areas so we'll need to look at various methods of storage and collection of material for recycling and disposal. We accepted the fact that, whatever our views on the energy from waste plant at Haverton Hill the new government performance indicators do not encourage using "waste" to make energy. We are going to have to massively improve our recycling rate and reduce the amount of rubbish we produce, and fast.
At the end of 2 hours we had 11 recommendations and 3 further points we wanted to make. We also decided to put down a marker for 2009/10 that we will want to scrutinise performance on our carbon reduction strategy when it's been in place for a year and to look at our own waste - how is the council treating things it no longer needs. Rubbish or recycling? We may also wish to look at how the council's partners are dealing with the same issues.
There was just time to do a few more jobs, write a couple of letters and deal with a host of e-mails before council tonight. Some very good questions were asked, and not all were answered but Alan Lewis asked about the council doing something to encourage owners of private car parks like the ones at Sunningdale shops and Orchard shops to enforce the proper use of disabled parking bays. He was told that thanks to his question council officers would now look into this!
Sadly, not such a positive outcome when John asked for an answer to his question about the Police Authority which he'd asked ages ago. The answer was long and read in such a way by the council's representative, Cllr Kirton, that no-one could understand what was being said and in the end the Mayor had to ask him to do it as a written answer.
Our motion on saving post offices was well proposed by Suzanne and seconded by Alan. Everyone was supportive though the Labour members for Parkfield tried to claim that it was nothing to do with the government and that Dari is working away behind the scenes to save Oxbridge post office. Crocodile tears again! In the end it was carried unanimously.
The same result followed for the motion introduced by the Labour group condemning the huge pay rise for the board members on the North Tees & Hartlepool NHS Foundation board. John spoke about the lack of transparency demonstrated by their treatment of a constituent on whose behalf John had asked a question and also pointed out that the members had accepted the jobs on the current pay scale only a year ago.
All in all, a long council meeting but not a bad one at all.