About our Campaign

As part of their continuing review of their directly managed post office network; a pilot scheme by Post Office Ltd (Royal Mail) are to move six of its post office branches to the local WH Smith stores by-way of a franchise partnership which will allow WH Smith to manage several Post Office branches across the UK within their stores.

The Shrewsbury branch on St Mary's Street is going to be affected by this arrangement and from their own “Branch Change” document made available to the public and sent directly to local leaders Post Office Ltd states “Our intention is to enter a franchise agreement with WH Smith retail, who will manage the Shrewsbury Post Office Branch on behalf of Post Office Ltd from their existing Premises at Darwin Shopping Centre, Shrewsbury”

Post Office Ltd outlines operational plans for the move stating the following:

- Opening Hours: 0900-1730 (Mon-Sat)

- Same wide range of services

- 8 teller positions comprising of 7 open plan service positions and 1 traditional style position.

- Access to the WH Smith site by way of 25 steps or 1 customer lift.

- Low level writing desk, serving counter and an induction-hearing loop for disabled customers

Post Office counters propose the branch move take place during September 2006 and in the document, Post Office Ltd are inviting feedback from local leaders and customers of the Shrewsbury branch on the following areas:

1: the proposed opening hours of the new branch
2: Access arrangements into the new branch
3: the facilities that are planned for the new branch.

Post Office Ltd are officially accepting feedback under these three point until the close of business on 8th August 2006.

Artist impression of proposed new facility to be located in WH Smith

Objections
Despite assurances by Post Office Ltd that the same level of services will be provided it is clear that a post office in a smaller location cannot effective offer the save services to the same high standards as a post office in a larger, more equipped building can despite good intentions and efforts on the part of the new location.

Access is a key issue especially to the disabled because access is only available by-way of 25 steps or 1 customer lift. Customers in wheelchairs would have great problems because steps are not an option and the customer lift is not as large as it needs to be and would pose problems to customers who have limited use of their hands.

Recently one disabled customer who had to wait 20 mins to find someone to help her to the basement level which is where the post office is planned to be moved to

The move will affect both business and domestic customers of the post office because during peak times of the day, long lines are common place in the larger post office although because the current location is larger these lines can be effectively managed where as in a smaller location, these lines would cause many problems for both customers and staff.

There are 17 full-time trained post office jobs that will go under the planned move because WH Smith will be employing their own staff to work at the Post Office counter which brings up the issues of training and security.

It is unfair to the staff to be expected work in a specialised job that they have no experience or training in.

The artists impression floor plan shows the proposed layout to be modernistic but the new layout appears to offer little in the way of security to the staff who work there and the customers mail.

As a point of irony, Royal Mail collections will be affected because the postmen and women would need to carry many (often bulky) mailbags through the shopping centre which poses both a security issue and a health and safety issue for Royal Mail.

Campaign Proposals:
Keep the Post Office at its current location on St Mary's Street or relocate the Post Office to a new, easily accessible site on the High Street.

Campaign Resources:
Petitions (on-line and hand written)
Letter writing campaign
On street canvassing
Word-of-mouth
Campaign March
Inclusion of local media
Campaign website and blog