Navin Shah, Slams Post Office Closures

Navin Shah, Labour’s Brent and Harrow Greater London Assembly candidate, has sent a strongly worded statement – attached - to the Post Office Ltd. opposing the proposed Post Office closures in Brent and Harrow. His statement comments on:

• The flawed consultation.
• The failure to take any account of Brent and Harrow’s cultural and ethnic diversity.
• How the Post Office closures will affect both the elderly and the most vulnerable at a time when Government is trying to promote the independence of such people.
• The fact that no Equalities Impact Assessment has been made, particularly, of the needs of people with disabilities, totally contrary to Government policy and possibly unlawfully.
• The lack of any consideration of the many new major building developments taking place in Brent and Harrow, such as, in Harrow Town Centre, around Wembley Stadium and the Kodak site in Harrow.
• The total absence of any analysis of how the Post Office closures will affect the vitality and viability of local shopping centres and how they will hit the local economy at a very challenging time. 

 
Navin Shah said: ‘I strongly urge the Post Office to step back, think again and withdraw these foolish and retrograde proposals and instead enter into a proper discussion with local residents and traders as well as with the local Councils.

I very much welcome the move by the Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone to institute a legal challenge through a judicial review to the flawed consultation. I myself am consulting as to whether the Post Office has acted unlawfully in so far as the Disabilities and Equalities Discrimination Act is concerned, as did Harrow Council.

I am very concerned that Brent and Harrow Councils do not seem to have responded to an earlier consultation by the Post Office asking to be informed about any major building proposals in their area. Given more time I would like to see them giving serious consideration as to whether the running of the threatened Post Offices could be taken over by the Councils and run on a co-operative self-financing basis.

I can assure Brent and Harrow residents that I have made the strongest possible representations on their behalf about this matter, no ifs and buts, and I will continue to do so.”
 

A copy of Navin's letter is available for download here: Letter to Post Office Ltd