Saving Your Own Post Office

If you consider that your local Post Office Branch is being closed when it is viable and/or an essential local service, then you must, for your own sake and that of the national campaign, mount a local campaign to save it!  Even if your own campaign is not immediately successful the fact that it has been made puts more weight on Post Office Ltd and the Government to re-look at the processes they have been using to 'streamline' the postal services to date, and to undo the harm that they have done.

Below is some general advice on how to mount a campaign, with some links to sample letters etc and to websites with samples of actual campaign submissions.

Click the link to view and download Jim Latham's 'How to Fight Back' DIY Kit  JL-DIY-Kit.pdf 57 kb - a very useful compendium to the advice below:

OUTREACH: If you have been earmarked for Outreach then you should read Outreach - A Word of Warning in conjunction with the other advice given.   NB: It would appear that PO Ltd only offer Outreach when the demographics are NOT in their favour!

Branch Access Report: If you have not been offered Outreach then you will need to analyse you Branch Access Report, and include your conclusions and arguments in your submission (at 1 below). The document How to Analyse Your Branch Access Report will help you here.

A campaign should comprise of four distinct, but interconnected elements:
(Click on the 'element' title or scroll down for more detailed advice)

1. The Submission to Post Office Ltd

This is the single most important element. It is here where you make your case to Post Office Ltd to keep your Post Office open.

2. Letters of Protest to Post Office Ltd and the Government etc, and Petitions.

A personal letter or email, well written or not, is worth 100 signatures on a petition, and possibly 10 'form' letters. Having said that not every body is capable of writing a personal letter, and even those that are prepared to write need a source of relative information. For this reason we recommend making both template letters available giving relative information to be used by others, and form letters that just need the sender's address and a signature adding.

Politicians (not only those in Government, but also those in commerce) hate petitions, and will do anything to put you off having one. The petition shows the resolve of the community on mass, and is a big stick that Post Office Ltd will hate having to duck. It also gives a focal point where members of the local community can feel united with the others, and a place where those that do not want to send a letter of any sort can make their mark. Nb: As powerful as it is a petition on it's own will have little or no influence on PO Ltd and should back up the submission and letters, not the other way around.

3. Getting your local Member of Parliament and your local councillors on-side.

Your MP and County/District/Parish councillors can add a lot of weight to your campaign. Involve them from the start.

4. Getting Noticed - In Your Community, Media Coverage and The Message

It is vital that you get the message out to all those that use the Post Office. Posters and leaflet drops are the first move, but do not forget 'word of mouth'.

The elements 1, 2 and 3 above, and getting the message out locally are the most important, but getting your campaign noticed in the media is a great advantage. If you are not comfortable with appearing on TV and Radio, or making public demonstrations, you can always write to the Press etc and get coverage without direct personal involvement - don't be put off.

Below, the above subjects are expanded to help you in your campaign. Either scroll down, or click on the links above to find the section. You may also download a copy of each section for your convenience.

We are always open to suggestions (and constructive criticism) so if you think you can improve on anything please feel free to contact us.  Alternatively all the issues can be discussed in the Forum.

Each element (and example document) can be downloaded as a document via the links here or at the end of each section.

        1. Submission    2. Letters and Petitions    3. Involve Your MP    4. Getting Noticed    

        Outreach    How to Analyse Your Branch Access Report

Sample documents and links to existing sites:

        Template Letter (pdf)    Template Letter (rtf)     Petition (rtf)    Petition (pdf)

        Link to samples of actual templates.    10 Downing street E-Petition Home Page

        Example Submission presented to PO Ltd by Friends Of Rippingale Post Office

1. The Submission to Post Office Ltd

Consultation Dossier, Preparation and Content

A key activity in the campaign mounted by The Friends of Rippingale Post Office was the compilation of an effective response to the so-called consultation period. FORPO considered that the standard response format supplied by PO Ltd., while adequate for individual replies, was inadequate for an action group. We decided to compile a full dossier covering all the issues arising from a potential closure, and containing as much documentary and statistical evidence as we could muster.

The dossier had the effect of showing PO Ltd that we meant business, and it formed the basis of a series of meaningful discussions with PO Ltd., which were not enjoyed by other protest groups. Therefore, we recommend that Protest groups undergoing the consultation process consider the production of a similar dossier. To help with this we have attached a suggested framework for such a dossier with appropriate notes on the most important sections.

A copy of our complete dossier can be found on the Rippingale Village website.

The amount of work and effort researching and producing such a document should not be underestimated and six weeks is a very short time. It's hard work. Those areas with Area Plans coming over the horizon could well get started before the formal Consultation period starts and share the workload round the group.

Consultation Dossier - Suggested Framework:

Table of contents

Management Summary (See Note 1)

Introduction

Village/Town and Adjacent Parishes

      Village/Town Description (See Note 2)
      Adjacent Parishes
      Geography and Economy
      Population Distribution (See Note 3)
      Public Transport and Access to other Facilities (See Note 4)

Village Post Office/ Shop

      Recent History
      Current Situation
      Needs of Residents

Post Office Proposals

Criteria Used to Determine Closure

Issues Arising from and Challenge to Closure Proposals

      Consultation Exercises
      Data Used to Support Closure
      Accessibility
      Use of Outreach System (See Note 5)
      Effect on Village Shop
      Decision as to which POs to Close
      Effect on Senior Citizens and Non-Drivers
      Future Development of the Village (See Note 6)
      Effect on the Environment

Support for the Campaign (See Note 7)

      Local Petition
      E-Petition
      Local Political and council Support
      Media Coverage
      Protest March

Conclusion

Note 1:

The completed dossier will be a large document, so it is important to front it with a Management Summary. This should be the opportunity to identify the main points of argument and stress them concisely. Completed effectively this will attract the reader to the main areas of detail in the report, and provide senior managers with information without the need to read the whole report. Without such a summary, managers are likely to pass the report to junior staff for analysis and report - not always giving the most desirable result.

Note 2:

Village / Town description. A brief outline of the geography, size and make up of the village, as an introduction to the more detailed descriptions to follow.

Note 3:

It is vitally important to give a detailed analysis of the population distribution, emphasising those members of the community who have mobility problems, such as retired residents; residents who have mobility restricting illnesses, and families with no available transport during working hours. Details can be obtained from the National Census web site and can be updated by your local council. We would suggest providing the detail in tabular form with notes.

Note 4:

As with Note 3, a detailed analysis is important, giving distances and access by public transport to the nearest post office from the town/village in question and neighbouring villages. Again tabular form with notes is recommended.

Note 5:

This is an important section as many villages will be offered outreach services. It is vital to be fully aware what is being proposed, where it is to be based, exactly what services will be provided, and what the costs will be. You should also research the practical aspects, cost to the community, and the long-term intentions of PO Ltd. If you wish to retain your post office it is essential that you provide arguments as to why outreach services will not work.

Note 6:

It is important to identify any future development plans for the town/village in question, as a potential increase in population and/or trading activity can be a major argument for retention of the post office.

Note 7:

This section is important to demonstrate the amount of support given. It should include copies of local petitions, Government web site petitions; details of protest marches etc; and details of media coverage.

Download a copy of this section - SYPO-1-SubmissionToPO.pdf 57kb

Example Submission presented to PO Ltd by Friends Of Rippingale Post Office

Outreach

How to Analyse Your Branch Access Report

2. Letters of Protest to Post Office Ltd and the Government etc, and Petitions.

The Personal Letter (and Email)

The personal letter, well written or not, is possibly the best support protest tool you have, but only if there are enough of them sent, and that they contain relevant information. Whimpers about what a nice person the Postmaster is, or that someone will have twice as far to walk to their next Post Office Branch etc will not cut ice.

A personal letter containing relevant information and objections is worth 100 signatures on a petition, and you should do your utmost to get all those that can, to write to PO Ltd, Postwatch, your local MP etc.

Having said that there are more people that will need a little help in starting a letter than those that are accomplished letter writers, and most will fall by the wayside if you do not do something about it. Hence the 'Template Letter' and lists of relevant points that people can include.

Today an email is as good as a letter, but it should be composed in the same way that you would write a letter, and all above applies as much to the email as to a hard copy letter.

The Template Letter (and list of points to include)

The template letter provides the accomplished letter writer with information that they can include in their own letter, and the less able writer a framework in which they can produce a letter. The template letter will also help with composition of an email.

The biggest problem with the 'Template' letter is that it can easily become a glorified 'Form' letter. Whether you provide a blank letter with just the addresses etc in place and a separate list of points to choose from for insertion, or you list the relevant points within the body of the template for people to re-word, there is a tendency for most letters to start looking the same. Unfortunately there is no magic formula to get over this problem - unless you know of one, in which case please tell us so that we can pass it on.

If you make the points too vague, it will put a lot of people off writing; if you make them more clear, then the temptation to just 'copy and paste' gets too strong. Of course, if you are providing 'hard copy' templates, then this becomes less of a problem as it will all have to be written/typed out in full anyway.

The points to raise will be the same as those that will go in your dossier/submission, tailored to suit the recipient.

You will need separate templates for each authority/person that you want to encourage people to write to, Usually 'Post Office Ltd', 'Postwatch', and possibly your local MP, plus any other person or body that you consider worth lobbying.

It is a good idea to save web (or computer) based templates in .rtf (Rich Text Format) as this can be read by any word processing program. If you have the means, then providing .pdf files that can be read with Adobe Acrobat is also a good option. (There are a number of free .pdf making programs available to download from the web).

Follow these links below for sample templates, and to a local website for examples of actual templates (in retrospect they were a bit 'wordy').

Template Letter (pdf)    Template Letter (rtf)    Link to samples of actual templates.

The Form Letter

These provide a means for people to make a personal mark when they would not write a personal letter. It can also provide a means to 'bombard' a department or person with letters, hence putting pressure on them, especially if it is going to a 'Freepost' consultation address. The same person can send both a form letter and their own personal letter (and sign the petition). A word of warning - as with petitions, many organisations will try to put you off using form letters. Perhaps they cannot take the pressure.

We would advise making the form letter short and to the point, with space for the sender to put their name and address, the date, their signature and perhaps a space for optional personal comments.

The Petition

This provides a focal point for the community, shows a common resolve, and is a very big stick to wave at Post Office Ltd, especially if the majority of the local community sign it. Having said that, personal letters and emails are more important - the petition should back them (and the submission) up, not the other way around. As powerful as it is, on it's own it will have little influence on PO Ltd.

It is not a good idea to go 'touting' for signatures (except perhaps in your local community or area served by your Post Office) as this can dilute it's worth. There is a big difference between someone who has driven 20 miles to support your campaign, and signatures collected outside the supermarket in your neighbouring town.

Be careful of the wording. The petition will be started at the beginning of the campaign before you have managed to collate all the facts / details. Once a petition has been started YOU CANNOT CHANGE THE WORDING. You have an advantage here as you can gain information from those who have gone before. Those who were in at the very beginning would have missed a number of points (used later in their dossier/submission to PO Ltd) that you will be able to include in your petition. See 1. Submission for suggestions on the content.

Get the petition to PO Ltd before the end of the 'Consultation Period', preferably as part of your Submission.

Petition (rtf)    Petition (pdf)

10 Downing Street E-Petition - this can be an added bonus to your local petition. If you get over 200 signatures they are bound by their own rules to respond (for what it's worth - but it still makes a mark). Follow this link to a Submission page on a local website containing examples of both a written petition and an actual 10 Downing Street E-Petition, and 10 Downing street E-Petition home page.

Download a copy of this section - SYPO-2-LettersAndPetitions.pdf - 59 kb

3. Getting your local Member of Parliament and you local councillors on-side.

Though community responses are invited as part of the "consultation" process, PO Ltd will take more notice if your case is backed by a bit of power and authority.

Most of you will know who your MP is, but perhaps not how to contact him/her. At the basic level, you need to know what their politics are - it will make a difference - and something about their interests.

Most have a website giving these details - and many, usefully, include their email addresses and even House of Commons extension numbers - the Commons switchboard won't put you through if you don't have an extension number.

If not, look up the local political associations in your phone directory and ask for their agent or constituency secretary and ask them for these details. You need to create a working relationship with them and their staff, who will almost certainly be the people to pick up emails and phone calls.

Copy any press releases and (almost) anything you send out, to them. And a reality check - some are better constituency MPs than others - let's hope yours is, will get involved and not simply fob you off with one-line responses.

The same applies to local councils whether they're unitary, metropolitan, county, district or parish. All these were supposed to have been consulted during the 2006 national stage of consultation, though in most cases this "consultation" was at best perfunctory and in most cases non-existent.

Again, some basic info will be useful - which party's in control of YOUR council, who's your local councillor, who's the Leader, which committee or department's dealing with PO closures, do they have community sustainability policies, have they been in contact with PO Ltd, what are they doing, is your Parish Council supportive, or even leading the campaign?

Contacts for councillors and officers at all levels - email addresses and phone numbers - will be essential. Someone in your group needs to keep and update a central contact sheet, make contact with all the above and get them on side.

Most or all Councils at whatever level will almost certainly have a website where you'll be able to find all the information you need. There'll be a section for their press releases too - they might be worth keeping an eye on. If you have someone with media or political experience in your community it would be a good idea to recruit them to your campaign - their experience and knowledge of this level of our democracy will be invaluable.

Download a copy of this section - SYPO-3-InvolveYourMP.pdf - 47kb

4. Getting Noticed - In Your Community, Media Coverage and The Message

4a. Your Local Community

It should go without saying that one of the first things you must do is let your local community know what is happening to their Post Office Branch. Do not forget the outlying area that also relies on your Post Office and Shop.

Word of mouth is possibly one of the fastest way the news gets around, but beware of 'Chinese Whispers'.

Possibly the best way (locally) is with posters and leaflet drops. If you have a local 'newsletter' make use of it, but as an extra, not the prime source of the news. If you have a local website then get the news on there as well.

Make your posters eye catching, and containing just enough information to make people aware, and where to go for more information. Display them in prominent places around your area, and in places like the Doctors Surgery, Pub etc, not forgetting the Post Office.

Produce a leaflet giving full detail of what is happening, dead lines (the so called 'Consultation Period') and what each person can do to help - letters, petition etc. Deliver a copy to each house in the area, and leave extra copies at the Post Office, Pub etc as with the posters.

If the loss of the Post Office will make the shop non-viable then make that clear. Losing the Post Office will be bad enough, but the loss of the shop will affect even more people.

Make use of local groups, eg the WI and Gardening Club meetings etc - go along and tell the members what is happening - enlist help!

And keep the news up-to-date. As things progress be prepared to produce more leaflets and posters.

Do not rely on media coverage alone to get the word around your local community.

4b. Media Coverage

Getting to know how the media operate in your city, town, village, district and region - and if you're lucky, nationally - could repay rich dividends if you can spend a bit of time on research

PO Ltd will take notice if they start getting calls from local reporters asking questions - every call will be logged and analysed by the PO press office.

And media coverage will help keep your community up to date and in touch with what's happening.

Knowing how it all works will help you get the best coverage. For instance if you send a press release out at 9.30 am to daily and weekly papers, local radio and regional TV, you'll probably irritate most of them. You'll have missed the most important, biggest radio audience of the day at breakfast time, you probably won't get it into the daily paper until the following day, by which time they'll have heard it on radio and will probably downgrade it as a result.

Your weekly papers may not publish until later in the week by which time your story may be out of date anyway and regional TV will be looking for a different angle because they deal in pictures- it gets complicated particularly if things get busy and you find yourself sending out two or three press releases a week.

It goes without saying that you need to know names of reporters and News Editors, producers, editors and presenters of particular programme slots in radio and TV, their email addresses and direct newsroom phone numbers (for out of hours calls).

The internet's very useful for this - every newspaper, radio and TV station runs a website with contact details - simply Google their title and go for it - make check calls to ensure you're getting through to the right places and people.

What used to be called evening papers rarely are these days - long gone are multiple editions. Most are single editions, prepared overnight, going on sale first thing the following morning - you need to know what their deadlines are for accepting press releases and when your material is likely to be published - because you may need to tailor anything you send out to the different needs of papers, radio and TV - who are ALL in competition and who all have different deadlines.

Weekly papers may publish on different days of the week, may or may not be owned by the same corporate group (so one reporter may produce the same story for three or four local titles). Most tend to publish on a Friday, with a Thursday lunchtime deadline - but remember at that stage the inside pages may already be full and the deadline in fact only applies to the front page - so if it's not a BIG story it may not make it - getting material to them on a Wednesday may be more realistic.

If you plan a programme of one press release a week, sending it out late on a Wednesday should ensure you catch the dailies and weeklies, the following day's local radio breakfast shows and the following day's regional TV - adjust this schedule if your local papers publish on different days.

But also be aware that every newspaper runs a news-based website these days, so anything that doesn't make the paper will get space on the site - the best will re-edit and "reversion" stories for this new "platform."

Make sure you put YOUR contact details on anything you send out and be aware that your phone will start ringing and a string of reporters will want to ask you questions, record radio interviews over the phone, arrange to meet you at agreed locations with photographers or transmitter vehicles and camera crews or book you into various studios.

Sending out a press release, then NOT being available wastes everyone's time - and you will need to put some aside to deal with the natural response to what you've started.

Getting NATIONAL media involved is VERY hard work. The staged, small- area-by-small-area PO Ltd approach makes it difficult to see the big picture, that 2500 communities are going to be hit - most of them simply don't get it. Keep an eye on letters pages and the occasional news story about closures - note the by-line name and copy your material to the same name - use their website to pick up email addresses - it's usually  firstname.lastname@whichever

Finally, if you have someone with media experience in your community, recruit them - it'll shorten the learning curve.

4c. The Message

Now we know HOW to get the message out, it might be worth a couple of minutes on WHAT the message is, or at least should be.

A bit of creative thought about what you're trying to achieve may be useful in planning a few big, high profile events.

If PO Ltd is saying that you have alternative services within three miles, then a march demonstrating what that actually means for residents with no personal transport, walking down country roads with no footpaths might be a good idea, particularly if there are no local bus services.

Ask the elderly and those with limited mobility to join in and do what they can - if they have to drop out then that makes a good point - mobility scooters, mums with prams, horses, dogs, all make good TV pictures.

Don't forget to warn local Police about what you're planning - you'll probably find them co-operative and ready to escort you and control traffic.

And preparing written profiles of those people who will suffer by the closure will be useful - real cases of elderly, disabled, young families where the only car has to be used for one partner to go to work, small local businesses all make good copy - brief the individuals that they will probably be interviewed by press, radio and TV.

All these will make excellent press releases.

Don't wait to arrange a public meeting to get community backing for any plans - six weeks is too short - get started immediately. You'll need a public meeting at some stage of course but it'll be more efficient to tell them what you've achieved so far, rather than asking for support for what you have planned.

Getting your local MP there will attract the media, ditto for local Councillors and any known personalities.

There have been plenty of ideas to point up the consequences of closures - everything from a continuous queue of people using a zebra crossing to bring town centres to a halt, to similar groups joining existing queues at central post offices, buying one second class stamp and then rejoining the back of the queue to demonstrate what will happen when customers have to move to the next nearest branch, protests at PO Ltd admin centres etc.

Prepare material and comments on all the criteria for closure quoted in PO documents, refuting these arguments - geography, social and economic impact, local businesses and home workers, increased car use, housing expansion - even though you know that these will then be ignored by PO Ltd.

It's confusing, because you will receive replies from Downing Street, from the PO Minister, from Postwatch, from every official source, insisting that these criteria are those used to make decisions about your branch.

And you will be frustrated by how successful the PO Ltd PR machine has been in getting their message about losses, changing shopping habits etc into the brains of many journalists

So play them at their game but also attack the real criteria - it's just a pretty pattern on a map - more than sixty templates were used trying to reach decisions on closures on the published criteria and they all failed.

A good look at the area surrounding your community and what decisions have been reached may be instructive.

All this of course forms the basis of a continuous stream of press releases to every level of media - plus copies to MPs, Local Councils, PO Ltd bosses, Postwatch, anyone you can think of.

A final word about Postwatch - they can make themselves look pretty stupid - a supposedly INDEPENDENT consumer watchdog paid for by PO Ltd. You can knock them, but remember they'll be the final voice speaking on your behalf in the consultation, review and decision-making processes.

Download a copy of this section - SYOP-4-GettingNoticed.pdf - 75kb