Oswestry reacts to possible post office closure

The Oswestry branch in Willow Street is one of 115 under threat as the Post Office looks at options for its wholly-owned sites, which currently employ about 1,000 workers and are making a loss.

Oswestry Town Council held an extraordinary meeting on Wednesday evening (November 27) to discuss what can be done to save the branch. However, some members of the public in attendance feel the council hasn’t done enough.

“This wasn’t a proactive move by Oswestry Town Council – it took another group of people to really hammer home the point, with a couple of councillors and the chair of the rural parish council, to get this meeting to be established,” said Verity Dean.

“Yet again, we’re in a position where, as local residents, we’re the ones doing the informing, the asking and being proactive. We don’t hold the power and the strength of the office behind us, yet it doesn’t feel like it’s being used for our benefit. We need actual engagement, which means councillors working on behalf of our community.”

Gemma Syrett-Judd, who runs Honeysuckle Wholefoods in Church Street, said that 200 people have already signed a petition at the shop within a week to keep the post office open.

However, she said she was ‘astounded’ by the ignorance of people who don’t know this is happening.

“Every time we ask people if they’ve heard [the news], they just look at you blankly,” she said. “We need to get the message out there to the public about what it means because they seriously don’t know. It’s an incredibly valuable resource to the town and businesses.”

Councillor Rosie Radford believes that the town council needs to show leadership so that people are aware of what is happening.

“It’s really difficult when some people are online and some aren’t and some walk the streets and some don’t, but we need to care about all of those people,” she said.

Councillor Les Maguire added: “I would like to suggest that all town councillors put in a little bit of time on Saturday to stand outside the post office, or wherever it may be, and get signatures and the MP’s petition, or the one I’ve got going. It doesn’t matter, it will all be going to the same place.

“We are all councillors, we can all spare an hour or two on Saturday, or a day in the week, doing our stint. It’s not a political matter, we should all be doing it.”

A motion was passed which states that the council opposes a complete or partial closure of the post office, which will be passed on to the Post Office, and will work with North Shropshire MP Helen Morgan, asking her to make the strongest representations in Parliament and to the relevant minister.

The council also agreed to strengthen its leadership around facilitating the campaign with residents and will work alongside the Business Improvement District (BID). Meanwhile, Clerk Arren Roberts agreed to contact the Post Office asking for its business case.