Acocks Green Post Office Relocation Proposal

by Roger Harmer on 24 September, 2014

We’ve known for quite a while now that Post Office Limited have been looking to replace the  Crown Post Office branch in Acocks Green with a branch based in a partner retailer. They now have definite plans which will shortly be consulted on. The staff were informed of these plans yesterday.

Under their plans, Acocks Green’s Post Office branch would move from the current site to 1131 Warwick Road (nearby, but on the other side of the Warwick Road, between Iceland and Hughes), where it would form part of a shop operated by ZCO Ltd.

ZCO Ltd are an independent retailer, who operate a number of other Post Office branches elsewhere in the country. As well as containing the Post Office branch, their shop would sell confectionary, tobacco and news. The branch would be open for longer (though we do not yet know how much longer). There will be no compulsory redundancies, with staff given the right to a TUPE (protected employment rights) transfer to the new site.

Formal consultation on these plans will start on Wednesday 24th September and will last for 6 weeks. As part of the consultation we are promised a ‘Customer Communication Forum event’. Details of this are to follow and I’ll post them here when I have them. In the meantime I’d very much welcome your thoughts and any questions you may have.

   4 Comments

4 Responses

  1. ANGELA BILLINGHAM says:

    I cannot think of anything more ridiculous for such a busy post office as this. There are often as many as 15 people in a queue when I have been in at busy times, with several hatches open.
    The parking behind Iceland is very poor with Iceland deliveries going on all the time and having being caught up in the blockages in the tiny car park this is not good. Whereas over the road there is a large car park with much easier access, especially for disabled people. The pavement is narrow over the road from the current post office and far more dangerous for wheelchairs and scooters.
    I do believe the Post Office made a mistake by trying to turn the current office into more like a bank and reducing the stock they sell. The separate counter for stamps and stationery sales was very useful and more customer friendly, however, I will fight to keep our post office in the green. Have any of the idiots who have planned this move ever been there???!!!!!!

  2. ANGELA BILLINGHAM says:

    PS If ZCO want to run the post office then let them buy the current one!

  3. David (Dave) Rogers says:

    I guess this is supposed to be ‘progress’? Have you seen just how packed the existing post office is at peak times? And the P.O proposes to fit all these folk into what is basically a multi-purpose store? Come off it, it really isn’t going to work satisfactorily, is it? All it probably may succeed in doing is to drive those ‘able to use the internet’ into trying to do their business on line, and in the process make the lives of many older folk, and the less able, even more difficult that it presently is! THINK AGAIN, please?

  4. Julia Larden says:

    The replies here are interesting and seem to fit very much with the discussion that some local activists (including Roger) have recently been having by email. A lot of what has come out of that discussion so far is here: http://bit.ly/1oRtaLZ

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