Campaigns
Fighting Post Office Closures
On 19 February 2008, the Post Office unveiled plans to close 171 post offices across London.
Despite a concerted campaign by Kingston Council, the local media and local residents, the six post offices earmarked for closure in the Royal Borough of Kingston (see map attached below) all closed:
- Surbiton Park, 62 Surbiton Road, Kingston, KT1 2HT
- Chestnut Grove, 127 Richmond Road, Kingston, KT2 5BX
- Norbiton Common, 240 Kingston Road, New Malden, KT3 3RN
- Burlington Road, 82 Burlington Road, New Malden, KT3 4NU
- Plough Green, 380 Malden Road, Worcester Park, KT4 7NL
- Hook Rise, 311 Hook Rise South, Surbiton, KT6 7LS
The proposals were part of a nation-wide strategy (Post Office Network Change Programme) to modernise and re-shape the Post Office network, which involved the closure of up to 2,500 branches across the country (with around 500 of these being replaced with 'Outreach-type service points').
The London region was the hardest hit by these proposals, with a higher proportion of closures planned for the capital than any other region in the UK. The announcement of these proposals came just three years after 375 post offices were closed in London as part of the ‘Network Re-invention Programme’.
The Post office consulted on their proposals and at its meeting on 11 March 2008 Kingston Council's Executive considered what the Council's official response should be (see report below).
The only good news arising since this decision is that the Post Office on Tolworth Broadway is scheduled to re-open in Autumn 2008.