Leicester

Public anger at post office closure

Anger was expressed at a public meeting in Leicester last week against the proposal to move our main post office - one of the largest branches in the country - to the basement of WH Smith.

Around 30 people attended, including elderly and disabled people, for whom the new facilities would be completely inadequate.

The post office will no longer be a service, but simply a vehicle to flog WH Smith's products, and could close down altogether if WH Smith has other priorities.

Postal service buildings are being sold off to developers, whose only interest is to profit from selling them. Leicester council had offered to utilise the unused top floors of the building, renting the rest back to the post office. However, the response of our New Labour MP was that the deal with WH Smith had already been done nationally and had to go ahead.

It was a 'purely commercial' decision, which the public had no say in. The New Labour controlled council simply caved in.

At the public meeting, there was a feeling that the many local campaigns across the country should unite to save the post office as a public service.

A boycott of WH Smith was called for and regular protests will take place outside the store against this criminal hijacking of our post offices.

Andrew Walton