Forty thousand people have been left without a local post office, according to the Walworth Society, as another branch closes ‘temporarily.’
Walworth residents said they are concerned after Walworth Road Post Office temporarily closed without warning last week – which will soon leave some with no place nearby to do their banking and use other services.
A Post Office spokesperson said: “Walworth Road Post Office temporarily closed on 28 February due to the resignation of the operator. We fully appreciate that this is a busy post office and apologise for any inconvenience caused by the closure at short notice.
“We are working hard to restore service to this area of Walworth as soon as possible. In the interim alternative branches include New Kent Road, Southwark and Harper Road. Customers should visit our Branch Finder to check the nearest location for the service that they require and the opening hours.”
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Jeremy Leach, Chair of the Walworth Society, said given the upcoming Barclays bank branch closure in April, he worries about how this will affect residents.
“There are lots of older people in this area and that was such a busy post office. The irony is that when Barclays announced they would be closing the bank branch – they said to go to the post office to do your banking.
“It draws people to the high street. I just don’t understand it.”
He explained that up until 2016, it was known as a Crown post office – meaning it was protected.
“Then it changed to a franchise and there was a campaign to stop that from happening because we knew something like this would happen, and it has.
“This has left 40,000 people in SE17 without a post office and a service that is vital for a huge number of people in our area.”
Following the news, one resident wrote on Twitter: “I can’t believe this. Just the other day the queue was ridiculously long and I had to divert. I rely on the Post office for various things and I know so many do. This is not good news #sigh”
The sign on the door of the Walworth Post Office
Another wrote: “One less reason for people to visit the high street, which impacts every retailer hanging in there; it’s a relentless downward spiral…”
Jeremy said that the post office gave ‘almost no information at the time’ to customers to signal the closure: “people have been left completely in the lurch. They just left a simple sign on the door with no explanation.” But he welcomed the support of the local MP and local councillors.
“Neil Coyle and our ward councillors have now got involved on behalf of constituents and following this, the post office has issued a more official response about the closure [pictured below].”
Customers who used the Walworth Road Post Office branch have been advised to use the one on New Kent Road, located at 32 New Kent Rd, London SE1 6TJ or the one in Camberwell, located at 25 Denmark Hill, SE5 8RT.
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