Post office campaign (From Stroud News and Journal)

Post office campaign

GREEN leader Martin Whiteside is calling on shoppers to boycott Tesco until it makes a U-turn on its decision to close the post office counter at a Paganhill store.

The supermarket giant has bought out the One Stop shop in Stratford Road and plans to withdraw post office services when it converts it to a Tesco Express.

It has offered financial help and expertise to anyone who is prepared to open an alternative post office nearby and now believes it may have found a solution but Cllr Whiteside, parliamentary candidate for the Green Party and a district councillor for Thrupp, says that is not enough.

"What is happening in Paganhill is just plain wrong," he said.

"Tesco is the biggest retailer in the country and expects to make £2 billion in profits this year alone.

"How can it be right for them to close our post office just to make even greater profits? All political parties agree, closing the post office is wrong."

On Thursday Mr Whiteside and supporters visited the One Stop and cut up their Tesco loyalty cards in protest against the supermarkets plans. "The world shouldn't revolve around what's most profitable in the short term," he said.

"Tesco may have a duty to its shareholders but it also has a duty to its customers and the community. "At the moment we think they've got the balance wrong.

"As consumers we must make it clear to Tesco what we expect, there are plenty of other places we can go to do our shopping to make our views felt.

"It's partly symbolic but if enough people choose to boycott Tesco it will start to have an effect on the local branch's profits and they may be forced to rethink their position. "Every little helps."

A Tesco spokesman told the SNJ the supermarket was looking at helping residents to set up a replacement post office counter in a nearby community centre.

"We don't have a policy of going in and tearing out the post office counter," he said. "We have a very good track record of finding alternative sites.

"Where we can't accommodate a counter we go way beyond our legal obligation to try to find a viable local alternative.

"It's no good us finding somewhere else that four months down the line is going to become unsustainable.

"In this instance we think we could well have found a suitable alternative - the community centre next door."

But Cllr Whiteside said a vague promise of a post office counter elsewhere in Paganhill was not enough.

He said he wanted to see a firm commitment to keeping post office services which would be sustainable in the long-term in Paganhill before he called off his boycott.