Weekly Meetings

The Save Carrington Post Office campaign continues! Apologies for the lapse in news. It's not that we've been inactive, quite the opposite!

We are currently holding weekly meetings every Monday night from 7pm at the Ukranian Centre on the corner of Mansfield Road and Watcombe Road. Please feel free to join us if you can [you need to ring the door bell to be let in].

A copy of the weekly meeting notes can be viewed at Carrington Post Office, or emailed to you.

I had three very interesting conversations this week that I thought I would share with you all.

The first was with Grant Butterworth, who is the Head of Planning, Transport and Intelligence Strategy. He is the signatory of the two letters from the City Council to Post Office Ltd arguing for the the four branches in their constituency. Having heard that Essex County Council has succeeded in getting Post Office Ltd to open its books on the Essex branches, and that they are exploring alternative funding methods that may keep their branches open, we thought we'd find out what Nottingham City Council proposes to do next. Apparently there is due to be a meeting with Ken Clarke this very afternoon to discuss what can be done. Grant feels that any possibilities regarding alternative funding is out of his remit and would be more suitable with someone in planning.

We feel very strongly that Nottingham City Council must do everything that is within its power to fight for our Post Offices and should follow the example of Essex County Council in getting the Post Office Ltd to open it's books on the Nottingham branches, allowing us to make a business case against the closures, and should consider alternative funding options.

The other two telephone calls were with campaigners for Rippingale in Lincolnshire. This group has been very active and thanks to their own efforts and those of Quentin Davies, their Labour MP, have had unprecedented access to the senior management of Post Office Ltd, including Mark Partington, Network Development Manager, Post Office Ltd and Sue Higgins, the Head of Network Change. The key message to have come from these meetings is that 'viable alternative solutions' will be considered. Of course, 'viable' could mean almost anything, but it's very interesting to know that this approach could be worthwhile.

Meanwhile, Lincolnshire and Kent County Councils are considering launching a joint judicial review to split the costs.

This just goes to show what can be achieved with the full support of your local councillors and MP.

Another bit of interesting news is that Rippingale is teaming up with other campaign groups to form a national campaign group, CAPOC (Communities Against Post Office Closures). A campaign website will be launched later this week. We've already signed up Carrington Post Office for this and I'll post the website address once the site has been launched.