How you can help.

The consultation period is over, and the final decision has been made, so any letters sent now will be ignored by the consultation team.

In order to dissuade Post Office Ltd from closing Willingdon Post Office, we needed more than just a petition. The Post Office know that they are unlikely to get people welcoming the closure of a branch, so they needed to receive convincing arguments for keeping Willingdon Post Office open.

Some areas that required particular attention were :

• How easy is it to get to another post office branch?
• Do you live within a mile of the alternative branches at the Triangle and Freshwater Square?
• Do you consider the Triangle post office to be suitable as the first alternative to Willingdon?
• Do you consider the use of the words "regular" and "frequent" as suitable for describing the local bus services to the Triangle and Freshwater Square?
• Is it appropriate for the government, via Post Office Ltd, to encourage car usage by closing local post offices, especially as we all need to be concerned about our "carbon footprint"?
• Are you able to climb the hill to the village from Lower Willingdon?
• Would you be prepared to go to Hampden Park or Albert Parade post offices?
• Are there personal reasons for using Willingdon Post Office in preference to another branch, even if that branch is nearer to you?
• Do you feel that Willingdon Post Office plays an essential role in the community, and forms part of the unique character of the village?
• Would the village be the same without a post office and shop?
• Will you keep using the post office network for banking, bill payments and pensions, or will you switch to alternatives?
• Post Office Ltd assume that customers displaced by a branch closure, will automatically switch allegiance to another branch. Could it be that the closure of Willingdon Post Office will prompt you to take such business out of the post office network altogether?

Our MEPs may still be worth writing to. The whole post office closure plan hangs on the EU approving state funding for the compensation package - if the EU refuse permission, then the closures will not go ahead. If we can convince our MEPs to oppose the plan for state funding, and if they can convince their European partners that the closures are against the will of the people, then perhaps the whole process can be stopped. Click here for the contact details of MEPs in the South East

We received around 100 letters at the campaign office, and Nigel Waterson passed on around the same number - all of which were then packaged up and sent to the consultation team.

Useful addresses

Save Willingdon Post Office Campaign, Old Barn, 116 Wish Hill, Willingdon, East Sussex BN20 9HL

Email : support@savewillingdonpostoffice.com

Nigel Waterson MP, FREEPOST NAT 9250, Eastbourne, BN20 8ZW

Email : watersonn@parliament.uk

Gary Herbert, Network Development Manager, C/o National Consultation Team, Post Office Ltd, FREEPOST Consultation Team.

Email : consultation@postoffice.co.uk

Postwatch South East, 28 Grosvenor Gardens, London SW1W 0TT

Email : southeast@postwatch.co.uk