Reduced use of Post Office services at Slaley has resulted in the proposed closure of the service in the Village Shop and its replacement with an outreach service. Although this is very bad news, meetings with Post Office Ltd through the County, District and Parish Councils have shown that the Outreach Post Office facility offered to Slaley is better than for many other Northumberland villages.
There is an opportunity for us to obtain improvements to the offered outreach. To help determine which of the two Post Office Outreach proposals would best serve the people of Slaley parish a very simple questionnaire has been placed in Slaley Post Office and the Parish Councillors urge everyone to complete one of the options by today, August 1st. The PC will then work to obtain the best conditions possible from Post Office Ltd. before the consultation period ends on August 11th.
Also a letter to the parishioners of Slaley.
Slaley Parish Council.
Chairman: Ian C Hancock. E-mail: hancock@glenlodge.free-online.co.uk
Clerk: Pat Wilson. E-mail patricia.wilson28@btinternet.com
July 2008
Dear Slaley Parishioner,
The Post Office Outreach Service on offer is either
7 hours in Village Hall (in 2 or 3 sessions each week of 2 or 3 hours)
or Mobile van daily provision of 1 hour 15 minutes (weekdays only)
We are asking you to inform us of regular lengthy transactions, one-off instances of heavy use, or personal circumstances relevant to the location of the service, which can be used in our case to PO Ltd to obtain better opening times and conditions.
The Parish Council needs FACTS to present to Post Office Ltd.; we need to know of individuals' Post Office needs. It was agreed by PO Ltd at our parish meeting that the proposed opening times are open to alteration and improvement if we can make a factual case on evidence currently not available to PO Ltd. Here is one example of such evidence: A parishioner posted 63 large calendars from Slaley PO in December 2007. Each Calendar had to be weighed and recorded according to its destination in the world. The whole process took 45 minutes but in PO statistics it counted as one customer transaction. The proposed outreach service assumes 160 customer transactions per week. Given 7 hours (or maybe a little less) of PO service time, that equates to only 2.63 minutes per transaction.
August 11th is the deadline for the six-week consultation period, but the Parish Council needs to formulate its response by August 6th; therefore can we ask that any factual evidence you can provide can reach us by August 4th. In this instance please forward all correspondence to either Councillor Ian Hancock or me.
Slaley Parish Council has been actively involved in trying to protect our Post Office from closure since November 2006. You may recall the “Love Your Post Office” Poster, which was placed on the PC notice board towards the close of 2006. We believe that with your help we can at least obtain improvements to what we are currently being offered.
Yours sincerely,
Pat Wilson
Patricia Wilson.
Clerk to Slaley Parish Council.
The July meeting of Slaley Parish Council will be one week later than advertised (now Monday July 21st) for the following reason.
Slaley Parish Council
is hosting a
Public Meeting
on Monday July 14th
(not the 7th as previously advertised. Change in date is to ensure that a member of Post Office Ltd will be able to attend)
7.30 p.m.
Slaley Commemoration Hall
To discuss how the proposed new Post Office provision will affect you or your business.
It is agreed that a member of Post Office Ltd will attend to provide accurate information.
Ladycross Nature Reserve has organised two evening walks through Slaley Forest, led by Colin Jewitt, to see and hear nightjars. Please join us, to experience these rare and remarkable birds.
The walks are on :
Tuesday, July 8th
Wednesday, July 16th
Please meet for a 9.30 pm start, outside the Ladycross Quarry gate.
Proceeds to Ladycross Nature Reserve