News story

18th December 2000

NEXT STEPS TO SAVE OLDBURY P.O.

A parish meeting at Oldbury-on-Severn on Friday evening (15th December) prepared the way for the next step in the campaign to save Post Office services in Oldbury when the existing Post Office closes this week.

Northavon MP Steve Webb, who has taken a leading role in the campaign to save the Post Office, invited his local postmistress, Mrs Rowena Hindle from Olveston to talk to the meeting about the practicalities of running a Post Office. She stressed the importance to the local community of keeping an Office going and said that with the right training the skills required to run a Post Office were not difficult to acquire.

The meeting also heard from a representative of Post Office counters who had already been to Oldbury to meet Steve Webb and parish clerk Bob Quinnell.She told the meeting that Post Office Counters would be pleased to support a Post Office for up to 18 hours a week, and that on that basis the person who ran the Post Office would receive annual remuneration of around £3,500.

It was stressed that the opening hours could be set to be convenient for whoever ran the Post Office and could, for example, be fitted around school hours or other family responsibilities.

The Reverend Bill Denning from the Methodist Church confirmed his willingness for the Methodist Hall to be considered as a site for the new Post Office, provided that existing users of the Hall were not inconvenienced.

It was agreed that the next step was to advertise the vacancy, and to this end an article has been prepared by Steve Webb to appear in the parish magazine which serves Oldbury and the surrounding villages.

Speaking after the meeting, Steve Webb said:

“I was encouraged by the number of people who came to the meeting and signified their commitment to keeping a Post Office going in the village.Our doorstep survey on the issue also found a high level of support.

I am also very grateful to the local Methodist Chapel for their willingness to offer part of their Hall for use as a Post Office.

We now urgently need to find one or more people who would be willing either to take on responsibility for running the Post Office, or who would be interested in working behind the counter without necessarily taking overall charge.If anyone, either in the Oldbury area or beyond would be interested, I would be very pleased if they would get in touch”.