Councillors join the battle to revamp eyesore post office
THE battle to revamp Gosport High Street’s ‘eyesore’ post office has been backed by councillors.
The town centre’s two ward councillors have called on bosses at the Post Office to renovate the branch, which has been left a mess for nearly three years.
As reported in The News, the current building is boarded-up with little space for customers to queue inside.
Councillor June Cully said the public – and the council – should put pressure on the Post Office to sort it out.
‘All efforts must be made to save our post office in the High Street,’ she said.
‘It is vital to local residents and businesses that the service continues in the town centre. The poor staff have been stranded in the back end of what was a post office we were proud of. We have to do right by them.
‘This is the time where we have to make it clear to the Post Office that we want to retain a branch here in the high street. We want people to get behind that and send a message to the Post Office.’
Councillor Diane Searle, added: ‘I hope to see the day, if I’m still alive by then, that the post office is back and fully working.
‘I think everyone sees Gosport as Hampshire’s little cousin, I don’t really understand the hold up. It’s all come to a big standstill.’
It comes as Gosport MP Caroline Dinenage is bidding for the town to be used as a pilot to undergo changes proposed by TV retail expert Mary Portas to help dying high streets.
Cllr Searle added: ‘Gosport desperately needs this post office to be revamped soon, it’s the only one left now except Alverstoke. There are a lot of elderly people living in the area so making their lives easier is what we want.
‘This Post Office is very important to the local community, and it’s a shame to just have half a shop for them to use.’
Cllr Searle also moved to praise the work of the staff at the post office, sympathising with their situation.
She added: ‘The staff are all wonderful, it’s just a massive shame for them to work in that way and it can’t be easy for them.
‘They get a lot of complaints about the state of the site but they cope with it very well.’
The Post Office told The News it was continuing to look for a permanent buyer for the site to enable them to operate their services from inside. In the mean time, it said it was working to make temporary improvements to the building.
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Friday 25 May 2012
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MrOliver
Monday, February 6, 2012 at 09:55 PMAlverman's right. Hook, Chegwyn and our MP Ms Dinenage were all onto this story two weeks ago. Labour were silent. If the Socialist councillors for the town ward were doing their job properly they'd have got this eyesore cleaned-up long ago.
Alverman
Monday, February 6, 2012 at 12:35 PMWard Councillors are very quick to jump on the bandwagon when the MP gets involved. Take your time ladies.
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