The following letter has been received by the Upham Parish Council
Lower Upham Post Office
Winchester Road, Upham, Southampton, SO32 1HD
Public Consultation – Service Re-opening
I am writing to let you know that, in order to restore Post Office services to our customers in Lower Upham, we are proposing to introduce a Hosted Outreach service which will operate from: Alma Inn, Alma Lane, Upham, Southampton SO32 1HE. The opening hours will be 12.00 – 14.00 on Mondays and 09.00 to 11.00 on Thursdays.
The branch closed temporarily in May 2015 because the Postmaster resigned and the premises were withdrawn for Post Office use. We are now in a position to restore a service to our customers in the local community and the establishment of a Hosted Outreach service presents the best possible solution in the area.
I am therefore pleased to inform you that a nearby Postmaster (from Bishops Waltham Post Office) has been identified, who will offer the service from Alma Inn. Full details of the proposed new service are provided at the end of this letter.
Consulting on the proposed change
We’re now starting a 6 week local public consultation and would like you to tell us what you think about the suitability of the proposed new location and new service. Before we finalise our plans, we would really like to hear your views on this proposal particularly on the following areas:
- How suitable you think the new location and premises are?
- Do you have any comments on the proposed days and opening hours?
- How easy is it to get there?
- Are the new premises easy for you to get into and is the inside easily accessible?
- Do you have any concerns about the new location?
- If so, do you have any suggestions that could help us make it better for you?
- Are there any local community issues which you think could be affected by the proposed move?
- Is there anything you particularly like about the proposed change?
If you have any comments or questions, please email or write to me via our Communication and Consultation team, whose contact details are below. Any information we receive will be considered as we finalise our plans for the new service. Other people in your organisation may be interested in this proposal, so please let them know about it. Please note that your comments will not be kept confidential unless you expressly ask us to do so by clearly marking them “In Confidence”.
You can share your views on the proposed move through our easy and convenient new online questionnaire via this link. When entering the site you will be asked to enter the code for this branch: 20654699.
Dates for the local public consultation:
Local Public Consultation starts 9th June, 2016
Local Public Consultation ends 21st July, 2016
Planned date of re-opening 4th July, 2016
In order to restore Post Office services to our customers in Lower Upham, the new service will open during consultation. However, this does not affect the period of public consultation which will be open between the dates stated above. Therefore, it you do wish to contact me, please note that 21st July, 2016 is the closing date for all enquiries. We’re carrying out this consultation in line with our Code of Practice. You can find more information about the Code on both the village noticeboards.
At the end of the consultation I’ll be in touch again to let you know our final plans.
We will inform our customers of the final decision by displaying a poster locally.
Thank you for considering our proposal.
Yours sincerely,
Robert Worley, Field Change Advisor
