Paganhill: May Fair great but was community 'mugged' re post office move?

Today was a wintery, wet and blowy day - but the bad news was that by the time I arrived at the May Fair with my partners 5 year old granddaughter the ice cream van had given up and left. We only managed a little of the impressive Excelsior Brass Band from Gloucester before going in search of the promised cold stuff at the 'One Stop'. We returned for the Dog Show, 'England's Glory Morris Dancers', corn snakes, tombola (won bubble bath) and a cup of tea - all quintessentially English and a wonderfully friendly atmosphere. It was a pity the weather was not so great but spirits seemed far from dampened.

Paganhill Post Office saved

Many of those who had helped the fight to keep a post office in Paganhill were at the Fair - their huge success, borne of much hard work, is to be celebrated. The 'One Stop' post office will close on Wednesday, June 21, with services opening at the Maypole Hall at 9am on Friday, June 23.

However while it really is great news that the Paganhill Post Office has been saved, as I noted in a letter to the Stroud News and Journal, I have been left with the feeling that this is another example of our community being 'mugged' by supermarkets.

Tesco announced plans to close the current counter at the One Stop shop on Stratford Road 18 months ago. There was a huge campaign to keep it open with several large cross-party demonstrations and a march. Yet the supermarket giant insisted there was not room to keep the post office counters - despite their Nailsworth store of a similar size retaining a post office.

'Tax payers money to develop post office when we already had one'

The Green party launched a boycott of Tesco, but very quickly almost everyone rolled over and we were even grateful that Tesco said they would keep the counter open while an alternative site for the post office was sought. Then came the months of work by community leaders to put together the current scheme. Yes, there are significant benefits for the local Maypole hall, but it seems extraordinary that many thousands of pounds of our tax payers money is being used to develop a new post office when we already had one in the One Stop before the Tesco takeover.

This to me is yet another example of Tesco walking all over us. Why wont our politicians and government stand up to them? Worse still all the indications are that if current Government policy of more "market liberalisation" for postal services continues we will face more closures, including perhaps even the new Maypole Hall service will be threatened.

For those interested in reading more about the impact of supermarkets, there is a brief summary 'Supermarkets: Challenging the myth that they promote jobs and are good for the local economy" from a couple of years ago under 'Reports' at the Glos Green party website.
Or more info at "Tescopoly" an alliance of many groups including Friends of the Earth and the Small and Family Farms Alliance:
http://www.tescopoly.org/
See details of Parliamentary report re power of supermarkets:
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,,1696989,00.html
And look under 'Campaigns' or use the 'Search' facility at:
http://www.glosgreenparty.org.uk