Save Carrington Post Office Demo Pictures

Save Carrington Post Office. Demonstration on Tuesday 30th October from 8am until 6pm and on Saturday the 3rd November 9 until 12.30. Both outside the postoffice on Mansfield Road.

The post office is proposing to close Carrington Post Office and they have until 12th November to fight to keep it open.

Please :
Sign the petition in the newsagent near the Post Office
Get involved with the day of action or volunteer your services.

Day of actions:
Tuesday 30th October 8 to 6 demonstration outside the Post Office
Saturday 3rd November demonstration outside the post office from 9 to 12.30

Pleas ring Bekianderson on 07801737445



Save Carrington Post Office Action Group is campaigning to keep Carrington Post Office [CPO] open through encouraging people in its catchment area to write letters to the Post Office and PostWatch to ask for the CPO to be considered for further review after the public consultation. The action group has already delivered over 4,000 leaflets and its petition has collected 2000 signatures in just two weeks. In addition to the Wheelchair Accessibility Test, the group is staging two peaceful demonstrations.

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PRESS RELEASE:

Post Office Closures: The Wheelchair Accessibility Test

A wheelchair-using customer of Carrington Post Office, Mansfield Road, Nottingham, which is proposed for closure, will attempt to travel to the two alternative post offices as suggested by the Post Office to see how accessible they really are at 10am on Saturday 3 November.

Doreen Sim has used Carrington Post Office twice a week for the last twenty years to pay her bills and collect her pension. The current journey takes her just 5 minutes from her home along all level terrain and wide pavements.

The two alternative post offices; Sherwood and Beech Avenue are both almost 30 minutes away and both have accessibility issues which include steep inclines/declines, narrow pavements blocked by litter bins, no bus routes between Carrington and Beech Avenue and there is a step at the entrance of the Sherwood branch.

Doreen said: “As a regular customer of Carrington Post Office I am very interested in finding out if the Post Office’s assertion that the Beech Avenue and Sherwood Post Offices are viable alternatives for wheelchair users such as myself are correct. Personally I believe that it will be impossible for me to use either of the suggested alternatives which will mean that I can’t draw my pension or pay my bills and will have to stop being a Post Office customer. I am very concerned at the proposed closure of Carrington Post Office”.

If you would like to join Doreen on her Wheelchair Accessibility Test, please contact  bekianderson@yahoo.co.uk | 07801 737445 for further details or meet outside Carrington Post Office, 355 Mansfield Road, at 10am on Saturday 3 November.

Coinciding with Doreen’s Test, will be a peaceful demonstration outside Carrington Post Office from 9am till 12.30pm.

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For further information or photos of Doreen’s Wheelchair Access Test
please contact Beki Anderson:
 bekianderson@yahoo.co.uk | 07801 737445

Notes to Editors

The Post Office restructure is all about creating a sustainable branch network. However, the branch access reports do not take into account the commercial viability or the social impact of individual branches.

The Save Carrington Post Office Action Group is campaigning to keep Carrington Post Office [CPO] open through encouraging people in its catchment area to write letters to the Post Office and PostWatch to ask for the CPO to be considered for further review after the public consultation. The action group has already delivered over 4,000 leaflets and its petition has collected 2000 signatures in just two weeks. In addition to the Wheelchair Accessibility Test, the group is staging two peaceful demonstrations:

Tuesday 30 October: 8am till 6pm – aim to have a constant presence outside CPO
Saturday 3 November: 9am till 12.30pm – aim to have as many people as possible outside CPO

The group has weekly meetings, has carried out its own branch assessment report, created banners and written letters.

The key arguments to keep CPO open are:

· Carrington is a commercially viable branch.
· Serves a large catchment area which currently covers over 2,200 residential properties in the following areas: Carrington, Mapperley Park and parts of Sherwood, Woodborough Road, Sherwood Rise and the Arboretum.
· Sherwood branch already has long queues running down the high street causing obstructions and a nuisance to retailers and shoppers – should CPO close the queues and the elderly and those with small children would be made to wait for longer, sometimes in adverse weather conditions no shelter.
· The two alternative post offices; Sherwood and Beech Avenue are both almost 30 minutes away and both have accessibility issues which include steep inclines/declines, narrow pavements blocked by litter bins, no bus routes between Carrington and Beech Avenue and there is a step at the entrance of the Sherwood branch.
· CPOs many business customers will not be able to use the Beech Avenue branch as it closes at lunch time and will instead have to join the long queues at the already over-subscribed Sherwood branch.
· CPO is located in a parade of 14 small shops including a pharmacist, a florist and a newsagent. These form the lifeblood of the Carrington community but are likely to be adversely affected should passing trade from CPO diminish as customers instead use the Sherwood shops.
· CPO has a free-to-use ATM which is one of only two in an extensive area

For further information please contact:
Beki Anderson |  bekianderson@yahoo.co.uk | 07801 737445



____________________________________________
ALAN LODGE
Photographer - Media: One Eye on the Road. Nottingham. UK
Email:  tash@indymedia.org
Collected Web:  http://tinyurl.com/ynttvo
Member of the National Union of Journalists [No: 014345]
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"It is not enough to curse the darkness.
It is also necessary to light a lamp!!"
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