Tony Skottowe

At a meeting of the Council of War formed to fight the PO closure plans for Handside Post Office it was suggested by Cllr. Tony Skottowe that it might be a good idea to set up a Users Group to monitor performance of the few remaining post offices. Everyone at the meeting thought this a good idea and so Tony was asked to start the ball rolling.

The idea behind the User Group would be to gather information about the quality of the service in the few remaining post offices in the Borough. The main office in Howardsgate, about which various ‘promises’ were made on service levels as justifications for closing the heavily used Handside post office in Huttons, would be an obvious candidate for such a group to monitor. Initially the organisers would like to hear from people interested in becoming involved and to find out whether it would be better to have a borough-wide organisation or separate groups concentrating on specific areas, such as Welwyn Garden City and Hatfield.

If you would like to become involved in the proposed Post Office Users Group please contact Cllr. Tony Skottowe either by email at Tony.Skottowe@welhat.gov.uk, or write to him at 60 Bridge Road, Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire AL8 6UR. Please give your name, address, phone number and email address(if you have one). It would also be helpful to hear views on the alternatives of one large group or smaller more geographically concentrated ones, plus what you would want to bring to the group to make it a really powerful weapon in making sure we get decent service from the Post Office.

Assuming there is sufficient interest the organisers will contact everyone who responds by the end of January to inform them of what form the User Group/s should take and inviting them to a meeting to create whatever structures people think will be most effective.

Following the departure of two senior line managers as a result of the staff reductions last year the section on the Council’s website devoted to Pedalpoint and things cycling has gone forgotten.

A call from one of Pedalpoint’s leading exponents to Cllr Tony Skottowe has now resulted in the website being active once again. It is increasingly important that the council supports and promotes cycling. Not only does it cut car use but it is also good exercise in a time when the population is becoming increasingly less active.

Initial efforts proved fruitless but after a lot of badgering a new officer was put in charge of the website and, after a lot of hard work and frustration she has managed to get the site functioning as it should.

You can contact Pedalpoint via email pedalpoint@welhat.gov.uk or on 01707 3575. Now you can also download cycling routes and PDFs from the website. The link is below:

http://www.welhat.gov.uk/index.aspx?articleid=331

Nigel Quinton and Tony Skottowe have joined forces with Conservative councillors and MP Grant Shapps under the leadership of ex-councillor Dennis Lewis and formed a “Council of War” to support Richard Edlin, who is manager of Marsden Stores where the post office is situated. Tony Skottowe, leader of the LibDem group on the council proposed a motion to against post office closures. This was at the full council meeting in July. All parties supported the motion, which, with amendments, was unanimously passed. Richard Edlin presented a petition at the same meeting.

Letters were sent to all groups who might want to support the campaign, including the county and borough councils, and we have already had one public march, as many of you may know. At lunch time on Wednesday, a devoted band of Handside campaigners went to join the queue in the main post office to demonstrate how unmanageable the influx of Handside post office users would be for the town centre post office. These included Councillor Louise Lotz, Councillor Fiona Thompson and Dennis Lewis. Tony Skottowe could not be there, as he was at work.

The final event was on 25th July, at midday, when a very impressive band of people, including many in wheelchairs gathered outside the Post Office for a rally. This was attended by about 200 stalwart members of the community, and Grant Shapps, the MP was also there. Councillors Louise Lotz and Tony Skottowe represented the Liberal Democrats, and Fiona Thompson was there as the Handside representative for the Tories. There was no representative from Labour. Plenty of wheelchairs and buggies turned up, which makde the point that it is the less mobile members of our society who will be most threatened by this closure. Press and TV were present, along with plenty of willing wheelchair pushers! This was a day for our community to come out in force.