Post Office ignores objections to closures in Dundee

The Post Office today confirmed they are to close the 4 Dundee Post Offices.

Evening Telegraph

Their sham consultation resulted in no change of mind in Dundee, and they disgracefully boasted of the number of public meetings their representatives attended, whilst not organising any themselves in the areas affected.

From partial privatisation to massive bonuses for their bosses whilst attacking their workers pay & conditions the Post Office bosses have shown themselves to have no regard for anything but their own pay packets.

Do they not realise the Post Office network is a public service, run for the public, not them?

Press release to follow.

SNP government giving contracts to torturers

According to a report in the Sunday Herald, the Scottish government has given the contract to conduct the census to a subsidiary of a company involved in torturing people in Abu Ghraib in Iraq.

This is absolutely abhorrent.

Contact your MSPs to object to this, particularly SNP MSPs

SSP leaflets in Glasgow East

General Leaflet

Leaflet used on polling day

In Glasgow East the SSP used some nice leaflets. Here is the text from the first

STOP THE GRAVY TRAIN SAYS FRANCES CURRAN

No to the political fatcats who line their own pockets

THE socialist candidate in Glasgow East has vowed to launch a crusade against greedy politicians who plunder the public purse to make themselves rich.

Winning a seat in parliament these days is like winning the lottery, says Frances Curran.

MPs have a pay package worth quarter of a million pounds. On top of that, they can rake in a fortune from second homes and first class travel expenses.

Many put their relatives on the payroll to send their household income soaring into the stratosphere.

According to press reports, the last Labour MP for Glasgow East paid his wife and daughter half a million pounds to work from home.

Workers wage

As an MSP in the last Scottish Parliament, Frances spurned the lavish Holyrood lifestyle to stay in touch with ordinary people. She donated tens of thousands of pounds – half her total salary – to the socialist movement. She published every penny of her expenses.

I lived as a workers MSP on a workers wage, like my other Scottish Socialist Party colleagues, says Frances.

If elected as the MP for Glasgow East I’ll do exactly the same again. I believe in improving life for the whole of the East End – and not just for the chosen few who get themselves elected, says Frances.

After 30 years in socialist politics Frances Curran has no expensive possessions. She doesn’t own a house, but lives in a top-floor rented housing association tenement.

She has no car, no expensive furniture, no loot stashed away in a personal bank account.

You may not agree with everything Frances Curran says. But even her opponents admit she’s one of that rare breed of politicians who has never been seduced by glitz, wealth and celebrity.

IN THE HOT SEAT:

Frances Curran takes your questions

Over the last few weeks, Scottish Socialist candidate Frances Curran has been listening to people across the East End to find out what they think. She’s also been asked a whole range of questions about her background, her politics and her ability to do the job.

Here we carry a selection of questions and answers.

George, Shettleston:

Frances, what connections do you have with the East End?

Frances Curran:

My Mum and Dad were both from big extended East End families – the Burns from Barrowfield, and the Currans from the Calton.

I was brought up in Barlanark. Three generations of my family lived there. My grandparents were the first family to move into the scheme when it was first built.

I went to St Andrew’s Secondary School in the 1970s.

In 1979, while still in my teens, I joined Easterhouse Labour Party Young Socialists to fight against Thatcherism which was destroying the East End at the time.

Margaret, Parkhead:

What qualifications and experience do you have?

Frances Curran:

I don’t have a university degree. My Mum wanted me to go to university, but my Dad – a shipyard worker – died in my last year of school. That meant I had to leave school to become the family breadwinner.

But what I lack in academic qualifications, I make up for in experience of real life.

I’ve also been involved in politics at the highest levels. I used to do battle with Gordon Brown on the Scottish Executive of the Labour Party before he was even an MP.

I was then on the National Executive of the Labour Party along with the likes of Tony Benn and Denis Healey.

I worked with people like Paul Weller and Billy Bragg to mobilise the youth vote against Thatcher.

And from 2003 to 2007 I was an MSP at Holyrood.

Anne, Tollcross:

What have you done on the ground, at grassroots and community level?

Frances Curran:

I’ve been involved in grassroots campaigning since the 1980s, when I organised youth strikes against the Tories’ slave labour schemes – YTS and the like.

In the 1990s I was heavily involved in the Easterhouse Community Centre occupation, sleeping over in the centre for nights on end. We succeeded in keeping the community centre open for an extra two years, after the Labour council tried to close it down.

I was also involved in the sit-in to save St Leonard’s – though unfortunately we didn’t win that battle. And I’ve been involved in local campaigns to get heroin and crack out of the East End.

As an MSP I helped to stop a hospital closure in the area I represented. I also occupied an elderly care home until it was reprieved.

In the Scottish Parliament I brought in the Free School Meals Bill, and built a massive nationwide campaign in support of the bill.

It led to every schoolchild from Primary 1 to Primary 3 in Glasgow receiving free school meals every day.

It didn’t go far enough for me – I wanted to extend free school meals to every school student. But still, it was a partial victory.

John, Baillieston:

Why did you leave the Labour Party?

Frances Curran:

The party today is not the party I joined back in the 1970s. It’s now a big business party, a party of the wellheeled suburbs.

Even before Tony Blair and New Labour, I had become fed up with Labour. I was involved in organising the first ever anti-Poll Tax march back in 1989, when 20,000 people marched from Glasgow Green to Alexandra Park.

Labour to its shame refused to back the anti-Poll Tax campaign – and ended up on the side of Thatcher. For me,
that was the final straw.

Michelle, Garrowhill:

Do you support independence for Scotland?

Frances Curran:

Yes, I do, totally. I don’t believe Scotland is too weak, too small or too poor to go it alone. Exactly the opposite. We have oil reserves in the North Sea worth half a million pounds for every man, woman and child in Scotland.

Where I disagree with the SNP is that I believe in a socialist Scotland, where the gap between rich and poor is massively reduced. And where our oil wealth is publicly owned for the benefit of the people in Scotland.

Most oil-producing countries have nationalised their oil wealth. That means the profits are used to boost pensions, wages and benefits.

With a publicly-owned oil industry we could make all public transport free, slash fuel bills, and raise pensions, wages and benefits by a minimum of £50 a week.

Denise, Springboig:

What do you think are the big problems facing the East End?

Frances Curran:

I do resent the way the East End is often portrayed. Here we have some of the most friendly, generous people you’ll find anywhere.

Many people in the East End are involved in voluntary organisations and community groups, and are out night after night working to improve our communities.

Of course we have our share of problems – crime, ill health, drug and alcohol abuse.

The average life expectancy in parts of the East End is 63, which is shocking. Neither of my own parents even reached that age.

Anyone who says these kind of problems are not linked to poverty doesn’t live in the real world.

People in the prosperous suburbs can expect to live 20 years longer. They have access to better quality food, they are under less psychological pressure, they never have to work in dirty, dangerous conditions.

Ryan, Easterhouse:

Do you agree with the SNP government’s clampdown on alcohol abuse?

Frances Curran:

I agree we have to tackle the booze and blades culture and the binge-drinking which destroys people’s health.

I don’t believe that increasing the price of drink is the right way forward. It’s a blanket approach that clobbers everybody for the behaviour of a few.

It especially affects people on low incomes who just want to relax over a few cans of lager or a bottle of wine.

When I was in the Scottish Parliament there was free booze laid on for MSPs almost every night at various receptions and functions.

Westminster is notorious for the amount of drink consumed in the bars by politicians.

I believe the SNP are going down the wrong road by putting up the price of drink. In other countries, it’s far cheaper – but there is very little binge-drinking.

It’s a cultural problem we need to tackle – not an economic problem that can be solved by hiking up prices.

Eddie, Cranhill:

Do you think the Commonwealth Games will benefit the East End?

Frances Curran:

The danger is it becomes a road show that moves in and then out again. The construction companies and property developers will make lucrative profits and there’ll be plenty of supervisors jobs and project managers jobs.

Hundreds of millions of pounds’ profit will be piled up from advertising, sponsorship, TV rights, merchandise and the like.

But I want to make sure the people of the East End benefit. I believe there should be a special windfall tax on the profits from the Commonwealth Games – and that these should be ring-fenced to improve the East End.

I will also fight for local groups to be co-opted onto the organising committee to have a direct input and a direct say on behalf of the East End.

Davy, Barlanark:

Why is the socialist vote split?

Frances Curran:

It’s a tragedy that it is. I spent 10 years and more trying to create a single united socialist party. Unfortunately a minority walked out in the huff.

The other party, the Solidarity splinter group, is now on its last legs. Five of its leaders have been charged with perjury. Its only councillor has defected to New Labour. By this time next year, it won’t even exist.

Unfortunately, even socialists can be seduced by celebrity glitz. I was friendly with Tommy Sheridan for a long time. We fought together against the Poll Tax and in other campaigns.

The Scottish Socialist Party has stayed true to its working class roots. We’re not interested in being champagne celebrities.

We live in the housing schemes and the tenements and live on low incomes like most people in the East End.

Karen, Baillieston:

Do you have any chance of winning?

Frances Curran:

I believe, with all due respect to the other candidates, that I’m the most high profile and experienced challenger to New Labour.

In a by-election anything can happen – in a recent byelection in England, Labour came fifth.

We won’t get the same media coverage as the big two parties. But one advantage of voting for the SSP is you can protest against Labour – and at the same time pile the pressure on the SNP government in Holyrood to stand up for working people in areas like the East End of Glasgow.

If you want a small change for the East End, stick with the SNP. But if you want a big change vote SSP.

Labour legend John backs Frances Curran’s campaign

Westminster MP, and then a Holyrood MSP he was widely respected even by his political opponents.

John knows both Frances Curran of the SSP and Margaret Curran of Labour.

He has no doubt which of the two would make the best MP for Glasgow East:

Frances Curran stands in the best socialist traditions of the East End of Glasgow represented in the past by people like John Wheatley and Jimmy Maxton.

For 30 years Frances has been involved in frontline socialist politics and has never sold out her principles for a pot of gold.

Frances Curran best for East End

- Ex-Baillieston Labour councillor

Jim McVicar was a Labour councillor for Baillieston from 1984 until he was expelled from the party for refusing to hand over constituents’ housing benefit records to the Poll Tax debt collectors.

In the next election, he stood against his old party as an Independent Labour candidate – and won a resounding victory. He says:

I’ve known Frances Curran for decades. I’ve never met a more honest, dedicated, principled person in politics.

Frances would make a superb MP for the East End of Glasgow. Her campaigning skills are formidable.

And unlike so many out of touch politicians, she’s always kept her feet firmly on the ground.

COMMONWEALTH FOR THE COMMON PEOPLE!

In the next few years, we’re going to hear lots of talk about the Commonwealth Games.

But what we won’t hear from our political and our business leaders is any talk of sharing out our common wealth.

Scotland is a fabulously rich country, with oil, gas, land, forestry, fish, coal, thousands of miles of coastline, wind and tidal power.

Yet too many of our people are living on low pay and poverty benefits. Too many of our pensioners can’t afford to heat their homes. Too many of our families are struggling to pay the basic household bills.

• The rich will pay higher taxes
• Our public services, including oil, fuel and transport, will be publicly owned
• Our minimum wage will be £8 an hour
• Wages, benefits and pensions will rise by £50 a week, across the board
• All our school children will get nutritious free school meals
• Supermarket prices will be frozen
• Women will get equal pay for equal work
• Young people will get the same national minimum wage as everyone else
• Nuclear weapons will be banned from Scottish territory
• The council tax will be scrapped in favour of a local tax where the rich pay their fair share
• Free public transport will be brought in to ease congestion, pollution and global warming
• Our young troops will be brought home from the killing fields of Iraq and Afghanistan.

- Frances Curran

What a result!

Richie Venton on Glasgow East

Some SSP activists during election

What a phenomenal result on two parallel levels: the earth-shattering defeat of Labour in Red Clydesider John Wheatley’s seat, Labour’s 3rd safest seat in Scotland, held by them since 1922; and the tremendous achievement for the SSP in winning 5th place, the highest position for any of the smaller parties, despite all the apparently insurmountable obstacles we faced.

If we compare the votes with those of the 2005 Westminster election in the identical Glasgow East seat, Labour has gone into free-fall from 18,775 to 10,912; the SNP rocketed from 5,268 to 11,277 – in a turnout down from 48.2% in 2005 to 42.1% this time.

Thousands of Labour voters simply stayed at home in disgust with their record on food and fuel prices; failure to tackle poverty and inequality; assaults on the sick and disabled, and their wholesale neglect of the working class. Others did a straight swap to the SNP, as punishment for New Labour in an area they have treated with decades of contempt, stepping on people’s heads en route to grossly overpaid political careers.

The disgust at Labour politicians, and indeed politicians in the mainstream parties in general, was palpable on the streets, people spitting out angry words about them, responding warmly to the SSP’s policy of A workers’ MP on a worker’s wage.

Class differentials

There seems to have been a significant class differential in the turnout, with higher voting in the more affluent parts, such as Garrowhill, parts of Baillieston, Mt Vernon – which would be to the SNP’s advantage, because John Mason has been councillor for Garrowhill/Baillieston since 1998. The most deprived districts had generally far lower turnouts, to Labour’s further disadvantage.

The squeeze between the two political Juggernauts that we predicted, whilst agreeing we should stand an SSP candidate, took place with a vice-like vengeance. For example, 85% of those who voted went to either the SNP or Labour. In 2005 the equivalent figure was 77%.

My first impression of the voting figures is that the SNP upsurge was also substantially boosted by defection to them from both the Lib Dems (who plummeted from 3,665 votes three years ago to 915) and even some Tories (who fell from 2,135 to 1,639). In both cases, defecting voters judged that the best way to boot Brown and New Labour was to vote SNP.

This is an unqualified catastrophe for Labour and Gordon Brown. Labour activists were devastated, with talk of the need for a lurch to the left amongst a couple of the most unlikely Labour hacks I spoke to at the count.

The national question

There was not widespread, overt, explicit talk on the streets of this being a vote on independence. But it clearly is a clash of contrasting opinions on the Westminster Labour government compared to the Holyrood SNP government – and is a massive impetus towards independence … which will be exponentially added to when Labour’s thrashing in Glasgow East adds to the Labour crisis and therefore increases the likelihood of a Cameron government in Westminster.

All of which positions the Scottish Socialist Party well over the next couple of years, with our pro-independence but unashamedly socialist vision for Scotland, in contrast to the pro-big business agenda of the SNP.

The SNP are riding high in the opinion polls right now, and will be an even more rampant force in the aftermath of Glasgow East, but the contradictions in their all-things-to-all-classes approach are beginning to be revealed to more far-sighted sections of the working class. They face strikes by civil servants against their imposition of a 2% pay ceiling; anger from council workers facing cuts where the SNP are in control or coalition, and growing questions over why they dumped their previous commitment to bus re-regulation in the wake of SNP party funding by multi-millionaire bus tycoon Brian Souter.

SSP: the biggest small party

Given the monumental squeeze on all the smaller parties – and even the Lib Dems – the Scottish Socialist Party scored a fantastic achievement, winning 5th place with 555 votes – ahead of the Solidarity vote of 512, and with a crushing lead over the Greens (despite them having 2 MSPs) who could only muster 232 votes.

Of course we need a sense of proportion. Our 555 compares to 1,096 in the 2005 general election, before the split in the SSP. But what is quite remarkable is that the combined left vote held up so well (1,067 – almost literally identical to that of 2005). And in fact the combined share of the vote rose from 3.5% in 2005 to a combined 4.1% this time!

Given the far tighter squeeze in the focussed intensity of this by-election, the prevailing objective conditions that nurtured that dog-fight between SNP and Labour, and the serious, deep damage done to the credibility of the left through the split, it is remarkable that this was achieved, that the left vote held up so well.

This also serves to underline the destructive, reckless consequences for the socialist left caused by the small minority, led by Tommy Sheridan, who split off from the SSP two years ago. If they had instead accepted the decisions of the majority of members in the SSP and kept a united party intact, the combined vote of 1,067 would have put us in 4th place, above the Lib Dems – and that is taking no account of the huge additional vote a single, united SSP would have won.

In the tragic circumstances of a divided left, which the SSP was founded precisely to overcome in 1998, there is a profound significance in the relative votes of the SSP and Solidarity. Obviously we can’t compare figures with 2005 on this as we had one party then. The nearest comparator is the 2007 Scottish election results for Baillieston (which makes up roughly two-thirds of Glasgow east) and Shettleston (the other third).

A mere 12 months ago Solidarity got 5 times and over 4 times the SSP vote in these two seats respectively. In Glasgow East, the SSP got 53% of the total left vote!

Solidarity boasted about their 5:1 vote advantage in the by-election campaign, including at press conferences. Tommy Sheridan contacted journalists declaring the SSP was as dead as a Dodo, repeating the 5:1 differential of last year to try and convince people there was only one party of the left – his.

Solidarity will have got a very substantial family and friends vote for their candidate, and some votes from the family and friends of the child killed by an air gun in Easterhouse.

On top of that they crudely attempted to confuse people into thinking Tommy Sheridan was the candidate, with their one and only leaflet taking the format of a message from him, and the party name on the ballot forms being Solidarity – Tommy Sheridan … not even the softer option of co-convener Tommy Sheridan which they could have legally used.

Given all this, it is a signpost to the future when the SSP not only closed down the 5:1 differential but actually won the biggest vote for a left party in horrendously difficult circumstances.

For the broad mass the headline is Labour’s slaughter, the SNP’s victory. But for an astute and observant minority the SSP/Solidarity result helps explode Solidarity’s false claims to be Scotland’s foremost socialist party.

A conscious socialist vote

Considering the weight of the aforementioned squeeze on us, every vote for the SSP was an extremely conscious vote for socialism, for the rich traditions of Glasgow’s east end, in the full knowledge we were not going to win, but that our undiluted socialist message deserved support. A very courageous, conscious, socialist vote.

Some parties and journalists are trotting out claims that the good SSP vote was due to confusion over the two Currans – Frances for the SSP, Margaret for Labour. That is arrogant, patronising nonsense. Labour put out tens of thousands of leaflets explaining which Curran to vote for. So did we, with the theme that there’s only one socialist Curran in this election – Frances Curran. We spelt out the two opposing worlds these two candidates represented.

The visibility, colour, dynamism and élan of the SSP’s campaign on the streets left nobody in any doubt about what or who they were voting for. We never held back on our socialist message, in leaflets, a newspaper delivered to 45,000 homes, giant banners, through street meetings, and in media appearances. The quality of our campaign – which started out with literally no money or material exactly three weeks before polling day at the meeting of members where we selected Frances Curran as our candidate – was praised by the Greens, SNP, Lib Dems and letter writers to the Herald.

SSP pivotal to the future of socialism

We shouldn’t exaggerate what this result for the SSP signifies, given the very modest votes involved at this stage. But we have to feel vastly proud and confident that the SSP is pivotal to the medium-term unification and growth of a united socialist party in Scotland. It is a time to be proud of the principled socialism the SSP stands for; a time to join us and give renewed impetus to the rehabilitation of the socialist traditions of Red Clydeside in one of its historic strongholds.

Craig Murray on Glasgow East

Craig Murray (Rector of Dundee University) made a short post on Glasgow East

Hurray for Glasgow East

Apparently some commenter objected to his personal attack on Margaret Curran. He then responds explaining why he gave up civility on party politics, particularly in relation to the Labour Party. Why Margaret Curran is the cheerleader for a party which supports torture.

Margaret Curran is a lot better off than thousands of very real women, who were just as human as her, and whose lives the illegal wars of New Labour have destroyed.

It is worth remembering that Labours appalling policies haven’t just attacked the poorest members of society in Glasgow East or Dundee East, but throughout the world too, mainly in the name of “The War On Terror”.

Post Offices decision to be announced on 30 July

According to today’s Courier the decision on the proposed Post Office closures in the North East and Fife is due to be announced next Wednesday.

Fingers crossed that they have changed their mind.

During the six weeks of the campaign thousands of people expressed their opposition to the closures and we know of hundreds who sent off letters or signed petitions.

On Wednesday we will find out if it was enough.

Hiroshima Day activities

Walk up The Law:  assemble bottom of Law (top of Hill Street) at 8 p.m on Wed 6th August. March off 8.30.  Speakers to be confirmed.  Any queries contact Mike Arnott or Dundee SSP.

Also NAGASAKI  DAY,

Thurs, 7th August, 11.01 a.m. join Rev Erik Cramb for Silent Commemoration.

All welcome.

SSP submission to Post Office closures

The Dundee branches of the SSP submitted the following objection to the proposed Post Office closures

Submission to Post Office Limited regarding proposed Post Office closures in Dundee from Scottish Socialist Party – Dundee branches

We believe that the Post Office network across the UK should not just be viewed as a chain of branches of a standard business, assessed solely on its ability to make a profit.

The nationwide network of Post Office branches is a valuable public asset that provides a vital social service in both rural and urban communities across Scotland. As a public service, Post Offices should be viewed and assessed on the wider role and benefits they provide to communities, not on the profit (or loss) they provide to Post Office Limited.

In light of the government’s recent £50 billion bail out of Northern Rock, Post Office Limited have strong grounds for going back to the government and asking for an increase in subsidy to protect the Post Office branch network, thus maintaining its positive role in communities.

It is also deeply insensitive to these communities, who are having to fight for their local Post Office service, that Royal Mail’s Chief Executive, Adam Crozier, earned £633,000 basic salary, topped up with a £3 million bonus in 2007/08!! How many Post Offices could have been saved with that £3 million?

In March 2007, Adam Crozier was appointed Chairman of the EFD.

At the time he stated

“I am extremely pleased to have been invited to take on this role. Ensuring equal opportunity for all is hugely important to us at Royal Mail and I look forward to helping to promote and develop the terrific work which Employers’ Forum for Disability does with employers throughout the UK.”
Source

On its website EFD states EFD has worked closely with government and other stakeholders, sharing best practice to make it easier to employ disabled people and serve disabled customers.

One has to question Mr Crozier’s commitment to EFD’s stated aims as the closure of Post Offices around the country is hardly going to improve Post Office Limited’s service to its disabled customers. It is going to make accessing post office services more inconvenient, more time consuming and more costly (public transport, taxis).

The recurring objections that have been raised by the hundreds of customers of the four Post Offices threatened with closure in Dundee to whom we have spoken over the last few weeks while campaigning, are:

Accessibility to the next nearest Post Office and the ‘fitness of purpose’ of those alternative Post Offices.

Lochee Road Post Office:

If this branch closes then the nearest Post Offices will be Ward Road, Tescos in the Stack, Brantwood or Blackness Road.

If walking, all of these alternatives involve either an uphill journey there and a downhill journey back, or vice versa. The bus services to both Blackness and Brantwood branches are infrequent. Any bus journey would involve added expense (For example, 2 visits per week to the Ward Road branch would incur a cost of £4.40).

This added expense would have a profound effect on those many Post Office customers who are on very low incomes and benefits. Many of those who use Lochee Road Post Office are elderly or disabled and/or on low income.

Although the public transport into the City Centre (Ward Road) is more frequent the extra expense is still incurred. The service at the Ward Road Post Office is already poor because of the lack of staff, resulting in long queues and standing time. At busy times, it is not uncommon for customers to have to queue for 10 – 15 minutes before being served. This adds to pressure and stress on staff and customers alike and can lead to a hostile atmosphere. Also some of the transactions carried out at Ward Road are the more complicated ones such as passports and car tax, which obviously increase waiting time.

Broughty Ferry Road Post Office:

Like Lochee Road, this branch serves a high proportion of elderly and disabled customers, who will find it extremely difficult to access other branches if Broughty Ferry Road closes.

Their alternative options are Ward Road branch (see above for comments); Maryfield branch or Arbroath Road. Both these branches involve a lengthy uphill walk and bus services in the area have recently been cut. Of course, the use of public transport will mean additional costs to those who can least afford it.

Nethergate Post Office:

The two alternatives for Nethgergate customers are:

• Ward Road branch (see above) and it involves crossing 2 busy main roads to access it;
• Perth Road branch, which is already extremely busy, often experiences lengthy queues in quite a small premise. So again there will be increased waiting times and queues, literally, out the door.

The Nethergate Post Office is also the nearest branch to the University of Dundee which is attended by thousands of students and hundreds of staff. The University has also recently built new premises in the Hawkhill area which might put even more pressure on Ward Road branch.

There are also many businesses in this area, such as Bank of Scotland, DVLA, HMRC and the new Alliance Trust offices being built just around the corner.

Fairmuir Post Office:

Again, there is an elderly population in the area of Fairmuir Post Office. An adjacent branch is the one in Arkley Street, which provides an excellent service, but the premises are very small. Under present circumstances, it can become overcrowded with four people waiting to be served. If it has to absorb Fairmuir’s customers then the service provided will decline. Elderly customers could be queued out into the street. This is surely not an image that Post Office Limited would want to be associated with, particularly during cold or wet weather.

All four branches are surrounded by independent, local shops or small businesses. Those shops we have canvassed have expressed their concern that the closure of the neighbouring Post Office will have a significant impact on their ability to survive. This is at time when they are already under pressure from the supermarket chains such as Tesco, Asda and Sainsbury’s.

Another factor that should be considered is that a significant proportion of Dundee’s population is on lower than average income and in receipt of social security benefits. Dundee also has one of the highest child poverty rates in Scotland.

Our extensive research and discussion with residents in all four areas leads us to conclude that none of the Post Offices in Dundee targeted for closure should be closed. We have found support for the retention of these four branches to be overwhelming among their local communities.

July 2008