| |
Hans J Marter
9 May, 2008
EFFORTS are under way to save the Levenwick post office, in
Shetland, after Post Office Ltd today (Friday) announced it was one
of 16 post offices earmarked for closure in the northern and western
isles in July.
  Talks
are to be held between Shetland Islands Council, northern isles MP
Alistair Carmichael and PO Ltd to investigate whether the local
authority could help to keep the Levenwick office open.
The pilot scheme would be the first of its kind in Scotland and
mimic similar rescue efforts in Essex, England.
It is feared that closing the Levenwick post office will have a
knock on effect on the associated shop, depriving the community of
vital services.
Local councillor Allison Duncan said he was keen to see the council
step in to help.
"I am a councillor determined to save, save, save, but here we have
a situation where the post office in Levenwick is the hub of the
community,” he said.
"If the post office goes it means the shop will also shut in a
matter of time, and it is essential to keep these open because of
the medical centre nearby and the care centre in the community.
"Therefore on welfare grounds it is worth supporting this
pilot project and I would be supporting to finance it through the
council, providing we can reach an agreement with Post Office Ltd."
|
|
Mr Carmichael, who
spearheaded a campaign in Parliament to remove Levenwick from the
hit list, said PO Ltd was failing the people in the south end of
Shetland.
"Discussions must now be held to see whether a scheme along the
lines of those in some English areas could be made to work,” he said
this morning.
"I shall be speaking to the council in early course to explore this
option. In any event we must now engage further with the Post Office
to ensure that their closure does not leave local people, businesses
and services at a disadvantage."
A PO Ltd spokeswoman said that so far no approach to them had been
made by the local authority, "but Post Office is happy to have
discussions about local funding".
Meanwhile local councillor Rick Nickerson of making their mind up
before going out to consultation on the closure.
"Despite the robust support from the community and all the valid
reasons that were put forward to the Post Office network why the
Levenwick post office should be kept open, it is clear that they had
no intention of listening to our arguments and had made their
decision before the consultation,” Mr Nickerson said.
“As it is often the case in these situations, the consultation was a
sham."
He added that this latest round of closures was part of an
"intentional erosion of services". Instead of investing in the post
office network, the Treasury had taken away all the profitable
business from post offices over recent years.
The 16 post offices due to close as of July are: Gress, Grimshader,
Knock, Leurbost, Borve, Breasclete, Shader, Sidinish, South Dell and
Tigharry, in the Western Isles; Burray, Harray, Rendall and Swannay,
in Orkney; and Camb and Levenwick, in Shetland. |
|
.jpg)
 |
|
