Bletchley and Fenny Stratford Town Council

This evening I attended the Town Council Meeting, this was just to check that the grant I had applied for in respect of the Fenny Poppers Festival http://www.fennyfestival.co.uk/ was agreed. However I stayed put as on the agenda was the closure of local Post Offices.

I ended up walking out in disgust. There is to be a meeting in July organised to fight the potential closures of Post Offices in Buckinghamshire, did any of our councillors plan to attend - no!

A member of the public asked what the Council were doing to prevent the closure of the Post Office in Water Eaton, he was told that as it was all rumour the Ton Council would do nothing until it was formal. I guess you can understand the logic, however they Town Councillors had just had a talk on planning for emergencies, management of resources and what the Council can do to help in catastrophic conditions. I couldn't help seeing the irony in them becoming very animated in discussion of that general topic and their deafening silence about the potential catastrophe that is waiting in the wings when some of the smaller Post Offices are closed.

It is proven that when a small Post Office closes that it takes many other local businesses with it. Maybe not immediately but many businesses rely on quick and easy access to postal services. I am very aware that when I use the Post Office at the end of the street I generally run into people I know, it is a community place where many different people meet each other.

Posting a letter has become more and more complicated, it is not easy to work out the size weight etc, it all takes a lot longer than it used to, the Post Office has basically shot itself in the foot.

The hardest thing is how powerless the local community feel in the face of a conglomerate who seems to be acting in a completely random way, it is difficult to see why they choose to close certain facilities which are making money. Their business plan is frankly unfathomable.
But the way in which the leaders of the local community - the Town Council are ignoring the concerns of their constituents and refusing to involve themselves in any form of support or campaign is equally baffling. It will be the Town Council who have less money to spend when the local business community flounders due to a lack of local infrastructure - not only the loss of the Post Office, but lack of local public transport and poorly signed and managed parking facilities. Not to mention putting signs outside Fenny Stratford that tell visitors that they are 'Welcome to Bletchley'.


Let the Town Council know what you think

http://www.bfstc.co.uk/

you can contact them through this link.

By the way, we did get some of the grant for the Fenny Festival (approx 1/3rd of what was requested), thankfully there was still enough money in the pot to send 4 of the councillors on a course at £95 each on how to chair meetings. Its a relief to know that someone knows how to chair a meeting even if they chose to ignore the most important issues raised during them.