Chelsea residents raise fears over future of last remaining Post Office on King's Road

West London residents person described the uncertain aboriginal of a section Post Office arsenic a "disaster" arsenic the organisation looks to franchise the site.

The Chelsea and Fulham MP Ben Coleman has besides raised concerns astir the plans for the King’s Road premises, saying determination is “genuine incredulity astatine the menace to the lone Post Office near successful the street”.

A Post Office spokesperson said determination is nary program to adjacent the subdivision but alternatively to franchise it to 1 of its retail partners oregon an autarkic postmaster.

But determination are concerns astir what this mightiness mean for the work and opening hours there.

The Post Office precocious announced it is looking to overhaul the mode it operates. This includes reviewing options for its wholly-owned branches, with up to 115 sites and hundreds of caput bureau jobs reportedly astatine risk.

Sky News reported the Post Office’s projected changes are to assistance it spot its finances connected a sustainable semipermanent footing.

In a release, the Post Office said its five-year Transformation Plan volition besides fortify postmasters’ roles successful the absorption of the organisation and importantly summation their income.

Nigel Railton, Chair of the Post Office, said: “The Post Office has a 360-year past of nationalist work and contiguous we privation to unafraid that work for the aboriginal by learning from past mistakes and moving guardant for the payment of each postmasters. We can, and will, reconstruct pridefulness successful moving for a concern with a bequest of service, alternatively than 1 of scandal.”

Two Post Offices successful Kensington and Chelsea are included connected the database of 115 branches being looked at: High Street Kensington and King’s Road, astatine the World’s End Estate.

When the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) visited the King’s Road tract past week, a dependable watercourse of customers were successful and retired of the subdivision contempt the biting cold.

Several radical said they usage that peculiar Post Office regularly owed to the deficiency of alternate options adjacent by.

One woman, who did not privation to springiness her name, said she stops by often to bash her banking, and described immoderate imaginable menace to the subdivision arsenic “terrible”.

Another said it is the lone 1 they use, adding: “It would beryllium specified a shame for it to go.”

Conchita Costart, 77, said she visits the World’s End subdivision to station items and cod Amazon deliveries. Asked however she felt astir the uncertainty facing the premises, she said: “Terrible. They are closing them down everywhere.”

“Especially erstwhile you get older similar I am, everything seems to beryllium against us,” she added.

Ms Costart said successful the 15-or-so years she has lived locally she has ne'er utilized different Post Office.

“It’s similar the banks. There utilized to beryllium 2 NatWests, and present none,” she said.“It conscionable is, well, ‘where americium I going to bash that’, and what bash you do? You person to bash immoderate transactions and immoderate things, and I don’t cognize what to bash oregon wherever to go. It’s very, precise bittersweet really.”

Marc, who did not privation to springiness his surname, said the imaginable changes to the subdivision are indicative of a wider degeneration of precocious streets crossed the country.

He said: “All the banks are closing, each the shops look to beryllium going. I mean conscionable look down the precocious thoroughfare here. Literally a 3rd of the shops are present closing.”

On the King’s Road Post Office specifically, helium said: “It’s truthful popular, there’s ever a queue there. There wouldn’t beryllium a queue if it was unpopular. I’m an aged aged pensioner, I don’t cognize however to usage a computer, and the woman had to amusement maine wherever my bundle was.”

Another local, Helen, who besides withheld her surname, said she likewise feared for the branch’s future. “I don’t cognize what I would do,” she said. “I cognize everything is going.”

The Labour MP for Chelsea and Fulham, Ben Coleman, has been moving a petition to “save” the King’s Road Post Office.

He told the LDRS: “Almost 1 1000 radical person already signed my petition to prevention the King’s Road Post Office and the numbers are soaring by the day. There is genuine incredulity astatine the menace to the lone Post Office near successful the street.

“Thousands of residents trust connected it, peculiarly older and disabled radical who unrecorded nearby. It is simply a hugely fashionable and good utilized branch. It was typically buzzing erstwhile I popped successful past week, with radical queuing astatine the antagonistic for up to 10 minutes. Customers and unit told maine of their astonishment and worries astatine the imaginable of it being closed.

“I person written to elder Post Office absorption to inquire wherefore connected world it has appeared connected this list, and I would promote everyone to motion my petition to marque the extent of section feeling clear.”

Conservative councillor and Deputy Leader astatine Kensington and Chelsea Council, Kim Taylor-Smith, said helium shared the concerns of “many residents” astir the aboriginal of the King’s Road Post Office.

He said: “Residents successful Kensington and Chelsea are faced with the imaginable closure of 2 Post Offices successful the Borough, connected the King’s Road and High Street Kensington.“Given the anterior closure of the Post Office successful South Kensington, I americium peculiarly acrophobic astir the availability of services for our older and susceptible residents who often trust connected face-to-face services specified arsenic measure payments and entree to cash. I would impulse the Post Office to reconsider.”

A Post Office spokesperson insisted that determination are nary plans to unopen the branch, but alternatively to franchise it out.

They said: “We are considering a scope of options to trim our cardinal costs. This includes considering the aboriginal of our remaining Directly Managed Branches (DMBs), which are loss-making. We person agelong held a publicly-stated ambition to determination to a afloat franchised web and we are successful dialog with the unions astir aboriginal options for the DMBs.”