I am very concerned about the closure of 12 local post offices in West Central London. My main concern is that criteria for access to Post offices have been downgraded: whereas previously deprived communities in London had to be within a half mile of a post office, this has now been reduced to 1 mile. I will be making strong representations to Post Office Ltd to keep our Post offices open and I would encourage anyone who shares my worries to do the same.

The Assembly's Health and Public Services Committee’s study on the impact of the loss of post offices concluded that Post office services must be easily accessible to all communities and extra protection is needed to prevent closure. 

Ken Livingstone has already made a formal response to Government, calling for a halt to the closure of local Post Offices in the capital and opposing proposals to downgrade current criteria on access to Post Offices. He wants a post office within half a mile of 90 per cent of Londoners but the DTI consultation paper suggests that this minimum distance should be changed to one mile. Ken is now seeking legal advice on the feasibility of mounting a legal challenge to the proposed closures, and I support him in doing so.

In the past weeks, I have been visiting post offices facing closure including:

 Kenyon Street Post Office    

 Stratford Road

Ladbroke Grove

With Mr Patel of Formosa Street Post Office

Fulham Road

Lisson Grove