The Post Office say they are proposing to re-open the above Post Office branch in the new location – Martin McColls, 51 Moorcroft Road, Woodthorpe, York, YO24 2RQ on Friday 20 September 2019
Woodthorpe shops
It would change to one of their new “local style branches”.
The previous branch closed in May 2019 therefore they had to identify an alternative location to continue to offer Post Office services to the local community.
New Post Office branch plan
“Customers would access Post Office services at a low-screened, open-plan, modern serving point that’s part of the retail counter. Working with the postmaster, we’d adapt the current store layout, fixtures and fittings to accommodate the Post Office till if needed.
The branch would offer a wide range of Post Office products and services over longer opening hours, so customers can access their Post Office when it’s convenient.
Customer satisfaction with local style branches stands at 96 per cent, and nearly 20 per cent of local branch customers visit outside traditional opening hours” click
That practice stopped last summer although there was no consultation or publicity given to the change of policy.
The new LibDem administration has apparently gone along with this change of approach.
The Council is not required by law to publish responses but it is regarded as good practice. Most Councils do publish this information and it has the advantage of helping to discourage duplicate requests,
Some responses are published when a request has been submitted via the independent web site “What do they Know” However this is not the York Councils preferred channel for submitting and answering information requests.
The Council received 2068 requests under FOI and Environmental Information Regulations (EIR) during the last financial year
News blackout
The Council has also scrapped its “Ward News” web pages.
For many years the authority provided web pages which told local residents what was going on their local neighbourhoods. These were linked to background pages for each ward (click forexample)
The pages typically carried “what’s on” lists and event posters. These have now been binned by the local authority.
The Council is also refusing to publish, on individual Residents Association web pages (example), details of their meetings. Copies of agendas and meeting minutes had been published by the Council for several years but, in a recent decision, these have now been black-listed, ,
This seems to be part of a deliberate strategy aimed at reducing resident influence at West Offices. Half a dozen residents associations have been forced to disband in recent years while the overarching York Residents Federation was also ditched last year.
Liberal Democrat Councillors had previously promisedmore support for residents organisation.
Unfortunately things now seem to be getting worse rather than better.
