Colin praises townfolk's support

Colin deliberately reversed the sign in the above picture from open to closed - a good motivating tactic for us all so keep on writing and striving to save our post office!

Here, in the second section of my three-part interview with Colin, he talks about the support he has received from his customers, the December public meeting, the looming date of decision and also how the efforts of Llantrisant's campaigning citizens compares to those of people in other areas facing post office closures.

How have your customers supported you since the proposed closure announcement was made?

The support has been 150%. I can't fault people for writing letters. I can't fault the politicians and the Assembly members across all parties, everyone has got behind it.

For example our local councillor, Glynne Holmes, is a Labour elected member but as he says it's Westminster who made the decision to close the post offices and so it's against his own party that he's fighting.

Have you drawn some consolation from fellow Post Masters?

When we had the petitions going, Cross Inn and Talbot Green post offices, both of which have been proposed as alternatives to this office should it close, had petitions on my behalf. They collected somewhere in the region of 200 signatures each.

And Phil Dewhurst, who ran this post office before me, he wrote a nice piece in The District Diary magazine (see blog entry "A great asset to the village").

What has happened since the public meeting?

Since then we've asked people to write more and more letters and said that even if they've written once, to write again.

Allan Matheson, from the community council, and for want of a better expression my Campaign Manager (he's done a lot of the legwork for me while I've been behind the counter) he took minutes at the public meeting and I had enough copies to hand out to people the very next day.

He highlighted the main points raised in the meeting plus what people should be putting in their letters. As a result letters have gone out to a wide spectrum of interested bodies, not just the Post Office.

Some have had replies although those that have sent letters to the Post Office will, according to some literature I've read, receive replies after the consultation phase, which ended on December 10th.

How many people, overall, have signed a petition relating to the saving of Llantrisant Post Office?

The petition that was submitted had nearly 1,600 signatures.

When will the final decision be made?

Originally it was going to be January 8th, 2008, but I've been told that that might may be put back to January 14th now.

Will there be a chance of appeal if they decide to close the office?

No, once they've made their decison, from what I can gather, there is a four week period to close down the office.

Are you optimistic that Llantrisant Post Office will be reprieved?

Having seen the letters that went in and everybody's enthusiasm and support I'm fairly confident that we'll be saved.

Are other post offices on the closure list getting the same kind of support that's been displayed in Llantrisant?

Of the 31 offices in the Glamorgan and Cardiff area that are under the threat of closure there's only two or three that have actively had a major campaign. Of the others we get the impression that they've made a token gesture, it's almost as if they've said: 'We'll take the money and go' because there is a redundancy package available.

The final part of the interview with Colin will be uploaded on Monday.