Save our Post Offices!
The consultation period for campaigning to save our local post offices (www.savepostoffices.com) has now closed, and Charlotte Leslie would like to thank all those who provided overwhelming support for the campaign.
In campaigning to save her local post offices, Charlotte followed the advice of Post Watch, and compiled comprehensive reports listing objective criteria as to why the post offices should be saved.
Read the reports:
1. Middleton Road Post Office
2. Northville Post Office
3. Wellington Hill West Post Office
She received over 1000 petition signatures and comments from local people, and also organised Bristol's biggest ever Post Office march (http://www.thisisbristol.co.uk) and queue outside Henleaze Road Post 
Office, to demonstrate just how hard it would be for many elderly to make the extra journey, and how disrupted Henleaze road will become on busy postal days.
Charlotte said: " I'd like to thank all those who gave so much support to the campaign to save our local post offices. I was overwhelmed by the support we had for our petition and for our March - which gained coverage from The Evening Post, GWR FM, BBC Radio Bristol and HTV news. That kind of media profile can only help the campaign to save our community's Post Offices.
Unfortunately, some protesters were not able to make it all the way up the hill to Henleaze Road, which illustrated, very poignantly, that some elderly people simply would not be abel to make the walk to their next nearest Post Office. For the disabled it will be a very unpleasant journey in winter.
We really have done everything we can now, and I'll be waiting for Post Office Ltd. to announce the results of the consultation."
Post Office Closures: Is the Government bovvered?
05 June 2008What do we have to do to get the Government to listen? Despite a massive protest march, over 1000 petition signatures, a full report which I submitted to Post Office Ltd, and literally hundreds of detailed consultation submissions from local residents, the Government is going ahead with its closure of Wellington Hill West Post Office, Northville Road in Filton, Middleton Road in Lawrence Weston and dozens of post offices across the city. The effect that this will have on local residents cannot be calculated. During my campaign to save our local post offices I have spoken to so many people for whom their local post office is literally a life-line: The elderly who simply have no way of performing daily tasks without their local post office; the disabled who will not be able to make the difficult journey to their next nearest post office - and one war hero who told me how he had sacrificed everything for his country in the second world war and couldn't understand why the Government was stripping away his local amenities in his old age.
If those in charge of the consultation had actually talked to ordinary people and listened to how they would be effected, perhaps they would have reached a different decision. But as it is, it is hard to believe that the so-called 'consultation process' was little more than a PR exercise, and an excuse to go ahead with the closures regardless. The Government seems to be saying, like Catherine Tate's Lauren, 'Am I bovvered?'. No wonder people have lost faith in politics, and lost faith when the Government says it is going to 'listen'. What is particularly amazing is that our local Labour MP voted in favour of the closures in Parliament.
It is unlikely, however hard we exercise our democratic rights, that we are going to be able to reverse these disastrous decisions to close our post offices. But I for one will be looking more closely at the consultation process, and if there is any way we can challenge the decision on the basis that the consultation was flawed, you can be guaranteed we will do it. If you feel that you have evidence that the consultation process was flawed, please get in touch: charlotte@charlotteleslie.com or telephone: 0117 9736811.
I would like to thank, once again, all those residents who campaigned so hard to keep our post offices open. It is testament to a failing regime that nobody seemed to listen. But that doesn't mean we will stop shouting.
Yours sincerely,
Charlotte Leslie
Prospective Conservative MP
Bristol North West
Charlotte Leslie reveals sub-postmasters hit with £11,000 bill for offering
continued services
30 June 2008
Charlotte Leslie, the Prospective Conservative MP for Bristol North West has revealed that sub-postmasters who want to continue to offer products like bill payments and mobile phone top ups are being hit with a bill of £11,000 from Post Office Ltd. Charlotte has taken advice and is referring the case to the Office for Fair Trade to question a breach of competition rules.
Charlotte said:
""Post Office Ltd has treated its sub-postmasters, and its customers, disgracefully, and I am investigating with the OFT whether it is actually treating them illegally.
"Post Office Ltd has continually prevented sub-postmasters from taking the initiatives they need to make their branches more profitable. That is one of the reasons the network needs such a large subsidy.
"It is appalling that the Post Office should also crush sub-postmasters whose valuable branches they are closing and penalise them for continuing to provide those services which are so essential to customers who have lost their local Post Office."
You can read the full story HERE, and read Charlotte's first revelation which made the front page of The Daily Telegraph HERE.