Residents' petition to stop Thatcham PO merger
PEOPLE in Thatcham have launched a petition to save a vital Post Office service for the community.
The campaign began after shoppers were notified that the Post Office in the Tesco Express store, Northfield Road, would be combined with the grocery tills.
Shop user Chris Brooks contacted the Newbury Weekly News to say: “The staff and customers are not very happy because Tesco and the post office want to downgrade the service, amalgamating it with the grocery checkouts.
“They have asked for people’s views, but give a date when the changes are expected to take place. I use the post office counter about once a week and the staff are extremely helpful. I think the move is purely to save the post office finances.
“I think the Tesco’s staff are going to be overwhelmed by the work and people will just give up in the queues.
“Other countries seem to be able to sustain their post offices, in this country we seem to lack the funds for any infrastructure.”
Mr Brooks is not alone as more than 100 people have signed an online petition at www.thepetitionsite.com titled Save our Northfield Road Post Office.
The appeal says: “A high percentage of local elderly people have no way of travelling to another post office. It’s a real lifeline to them. Please help all you can. This is so wrong.”
One signatory said: “Take away the post office counter and you take away the heart of our small community.
“We fought hard to keep the post office open and it serves the vulnerable, the elderly and those less mobile enough to get to the main post office.”
Another said: “It is a valuable asset as many elderly people live nearby. New system of using one of the retail counters would leave people vulnerable to having money stolen as there would be no privacy.
"The queues near Christmas would be horrific. Why change a system that is working well with first class staff?”
A spokesman for Tesco said: “We’re planning to make some changes to our store to make it better for customers. We know how important the post office is and will be keeping the service in the store.
“We’ll offer post office services from our main tills, which means customers can use these facilities throughout the day, in the mornings and evenings and on Sundays too. Colleagues who work in the Post Office have been offered roles at the store.”
