Dave Morris, from the Haringey Federation of Residents Association,
said, "We're particularly pleased that Mr. Lammy here can put some
pressure on the government from the inside. There is uproar all over the
country." The residents present in the protest had placards referring to the
public consultation that was supposed to take place before any closure.
Mr. Morris said about this consultation that "has been recognised to be
ineffective, and I would say fraudulent, because, of the 210 post
office in London that were in the in the consultation exercise, 206 closed
down: 98% closure rates. However," he added, "in the past few weeks, 5
local post office in London have actually been saved, which shows that
the pressure and the protest is having some effect."

Bruce Kent, a local pensioner, said that "Somewhere down the line, the
reason [for the closure of Post Offices] is that some one is going to
make money out of it, some way or other"

Simon, from West Green, said, "Every time I go to the post office,
there is always a massive queue. People who are pensioners, claimants,
single parents, or disabled, who can't travel across the borough. Why is
the post office being closed down? It's to make more profits. This is
absolutely ridiculous. People can't be for profits."

Hebert Brown, a local councillor, was also in the protest. He said,
"I'm here today, protesting with the residents. I'll do my best to end the
closures." I asked him what else he would do to help on this cause.
"We're constantly having talks with the Post Office Limited, I had a
meeting with them about three weeks ago. I'm quite happy to have talks with
them, I'm quite happy to do this, but when it comes to a final
decision, it's up to them. When I left that meeting, they only said they'd come
back to us. The final decision will be for Post Office Limited, it is
not up to the Council, not up to the Government, they say they'll go
away, analyse it, carefully, but we don't know the outcome."

A samba band also came about and made some noisy protest, to the
delight of the protesters. There were also postal workers, among them Michael
Kyriazopovlos, political officer for the Communications Workers Union
for North and north West London branch. He said, "Every decision made by
the Post Office these days seems to be based on what they call
financial considerations. It is as if the idea of public service, based on
people's needs, is almost left behind and forgotten now."

Do you think most of the decisions are made more for economic reasons
than service delivery?

Increasingly, that is the justification given for every major decision
the post office makes, it's all justified in a commercial sphere. The
Post Office still remains a public service, and I think they are trying
to take something that is geared and orientated towards a public
service model, and distort it and push it into market conditions. And that is
why you see this sort of resistance. People don't want that push in
that direction."

If the parliament passes the plans, the government will spend £210m to
compensate sub postmasters for the cost of closures, and to improve the
remaining post offices. These, according to ministers, will be enough
to ensure that 95% of the UK population will live within a mile of a
post office.

Haringey Federation of Residents Association is planning more protests
for next week.

Listen to an audio report here:

http:radio.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=1516&group=webcast

For more info about the campaign, visit:

 http://www.haringeyresidents.org

postal address:

Haringey Federation of Residents Association
c/o 42 Falmer Road,
London
N15 5BA