Over the past three months the Liberal Democrats in North Somerset, spear headed by local campaigner and Parliamentary Candidate Dr Brian Mathew, have been undertaking a survey of the use of the Post Offices in an effort to prove how important they are to village and town life in the constituency. With two post offices threatened with imminent closure at Barrow Gurney and Nailsea Kingshill it is hoped that this information may help to prove to the bosses of the Post Office in London that the Post Offices are needed in North Somerset.
 
In all 10,000 households were contacted in the survey and over 500 responded. This showed that on average householders visited the post office between 2 and 3 times per week, that the purchase of postage stamps (96%) and postage of personal parcels (90%) was the main activity with 37% of households using the banking facilities and 20% of respondents collecting their pensions from the post office. 17% of householders reported using the post office to send business parcels.  Of the items most requested 51% said they wanted to be able to pay for their road tax at post offices and 26% wanted to be able to pay for TV licences again. 14% said they paid their household bills for electricity, council tax and phone at the post office. Other services valued included posting special and recorded delivery items, obtaining passports, foreign currency and buying premium bonds, as well as shopping locally for grocery and stationery items.
 
The lesson from this exercise is that the Post Office is still a vital institution, but one that has been devalued by the withdrawal of some services like TV licence renewal. However with fuel prices on the rise as we approach the tipping point for oil, it is doubly important to keep local services. Also with an aging population how can pensioners be expected to travel all day to post a letter or withdraw their pensions if they no longer have a post office near by? It seems obvious that post offices and local shops are going to become more and more important in the coming years as both a focal point for communities as well as to provide vital services. This is not something the Tories can be honest about defending, as they oversaw the closure of over 3,500 post offices under Thatcher and Major. The Lib Dems are meanwhile campaigning to keep every post office open in the country.
 
Members of the public are encouraged to keep up their own pressure in Nailsea Kingshill and Barrow Gurney by writing to: the National Consultation Team, Post Office Ltd, Freepost Consultation Team, or e-mail them at info@postwatch.co.uk
 

Brian Mathew with Marion Burlinson the Post Mistress of Barrow Gurney Post Office

The image of councillors with their snouts in the trough was difficult to refute on the evening of the 1^st of April, as the Tory controlled North Somerset Council voted for large increases in their allowances, while just a few weeks before they had initiated massive cuts to social care for the young and the old, that will have a serious impact on the lives of North Somerset residents. Voluntary groups such as MYCON in Nailsea which do sterling work helping youngsters on the streets are to close because their funding is being cut. Increased charges are to be introduced for those using day care and meals on wheels services, and in the midst of this Councillors are to award themselves more money.

The Council Chairman David Shopland will have spoken for many when he said:

    "You have all seen the letter from the Union (UNISON) which spells out the serious cuts we have had to make in the provision of necessary services to the vulnerable in our society.

    We cannot now use the money we have taken from them to line our pockets, that would be reprehensible and totally immoral.

    Be very careful in how you act and vote tonight. The Public will not forget in three years time and I remember an administration and councillors who fell because the public did not accept the monies they were being paid".

For whatever reason his words were not heeded in the Council, but in three years time the people of North Somerset will get their chance to speak with their votes.

Politics and politicians have taken a huge knock in recent years, to lie in the minds of many at the bottom of society, and in the light of what happened last night, many may say “rightly so”. We who want to use politics to make a change for good in this land, must rise above murky self interest if we are to win the hearts and minds of the Great British People.

The principle of councillors receiving adequate allowances is not to my mind in question and I will be putting together a joint policy paper to the next Lib Dem Federal Conference suggesting the creation of a national allowance scale for elected holders of public office. What was in question however was the timing of the proposed increases in the allowances, when the Tory Council policies are threatening the welfare of the most vulnerable in North Somerset.

Lib Dem Parliamentary Candidates Mike Bell and Brian Mathew with the UNISON Lobby of Councillors on the 1st of April outside North Somerset Council