8:44am Saturday 19th July 2008
CAMPAIGNERS fighting to save post offices in Dorchester and West Bay have formed action committees after talking tactics with MP Oliver Letwin.
Volunteers came forward during Mr Letwin's whistle-stop tour of communities that face losing their post offices in a cost-cutting measure.
He told campaigners they had to know their enemy and that meant understanding why the post offices - including Fordington and Monmouth Road in Dorchester - were on the closure list.
Mr Letwin said in Dorchester: "It's nothing to do with profitability or otherwise. They are trying to save costs. They hope that closing a post office in one place will move people to another post office and they will have the same revenue but save costs getting it.
"It's important to know that. We want to find alternative ways to help those costs be saved.
"If we are imaginative about it and with the goodwill of the councils and Dorset Community Action and plenty of others, we can find viable alternatives for a way forward."
Mr Letwin said at the Salt House in West Bay that the postmaster had made it clear to the Post Office that he did not want to continue running services from his Harbour News shop.
He said that the Post Office's main aim was to cut the annual £15,000 cost of running the service in West Bay and that the Post Office would keep services in the area if it could save that sum.
Alternatives include running an outreach post office from a community building with volunteers and a business handling cash.
Peter Stafford said closures were shortsighted and would take the heart out of the communities. And Sylvia Stafford warned there would be an impact on the environment with more journeys being made.
Members of Mr Letwin's Dorchester audience spoke of problems that would be caused by closure of the two post offices including their reluctance to use the main town centre post office because of queues and inconvenience.
But Trevor Jones, a member of the county, district and town councils and a former postmaster, sounded a warning note.
He reminded people to be sensitive to the wishes of the owners of the post offices under threat, in case they preferred to take the compensation now being offered. And he said customers should realise that Post Office Counters had lost income as Government business such as pensions was switched elsewhere.
Mr Letwin urged people to write letters of protest to the Post Office underlining how important the post offices are in their communities.
He said: "It will help us when we come to negotiations so we can show that there is feeling about it and that it matters."
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