4 March (Part 1) - Use it or lose it. Not a slogan that impresses the Post Office
While Greenwich and Bexley Councils try
to breath fresh life into a community that otherwise might die, the Government
is doing its best to sign its death warrant. It plans to close the SE2 Crown Post Office.
There is no local shop large enough to provide a poor alternative.
I will declare an interest, the post box that stands outside it is the nearest one to home.
The Abbey Wood end of Belvedere is not a bad place to live and Elwyn Bryant’s frequent siren calls to move to
Bexley Village fall on deaf ears. My mail not only gets an SE2 postmark but I
have a London phone number, can be on a train to London in seven minutes and look
out on the park that Bexley Council is least likely to sell.
They are not the only advantages over a traffic congested village.
Elwyn frequently tells me just what a useless constituency MP James Brokenshire
is and asks me to thank mine for her support - through me - in our battle with a police force
that always backs Bexley Council irrespective of truth and law. James Brokenshire said it would be “inappropriate”
for him to help Elwyn fight police corruption, Teresa Pearce offered me the use of her office to do so.
There’s the Councillor issue too. I sometimes complain that I go months without
hearing from Danny Hackett but probably he thinks I am more capable of standing
on my own feet than some in his ward. Poor old Elwyn has Alex Sawyer to represent him. Alex is not one of
Bexley Council’s really bad boys but I wouldn’t go as far as to say I would rely
on him to help fight any battles. The judgment of someone presumably happy to
employ Councillor David Leaf in his wife’s Parliamentary office must be questionable.
So I will remain on the Belvedere Abbey Wood border thank you although the area will surely take
a step backwards if it loses its Crown Post Office. It acts as the cash depository for local businesses because
the nearest bank is in Bexleyheath. Their survival is already in some doubt.
The nearest Crown Office will be in Dartford. I don’t think I have ever been inside it nor have I visited my
nearest sorting office which moved to Dartford three years ago.
On the rare occasion a card has come through the door to say I must go to Dartford to
collect something underpaid or too large to deliver I have ignored it. Dartford
is just too far away to go and pay a fee for something I probably don’t want.
I wonder how many brown envelopes are stacked up for me in Dartford?
Protesters gather outside Abbey Wood Post Office this morning.