Edinburgh Post Office: Petition launched to save Corstorphine Post Office days before closure

Community rallies as Edinburgh Post Office facing closure
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A petition to save a Corstorphine post office has received more than 220 signatures in 36 hours, as a local councillor leads the charge to save the community facility, which is due to close next week.

The Post Office at the Neuk on the west end of St. John’s Road is set for closure on Monday, January 16. Residents were first alerted to the news the service in November following the takeover of RS McColls by Morrisons. Morrisons say the store has “no realistic prospect” of breaking even and is therefore unsustainable.

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Councillor Euan Hyslop wrote an open letter to the CEO of Morrisons, David Potts, requesting the firm reconsider its decision to close this popular branch. He said he has never received a response. And, following consultations with Corstorphine Community Council, the councillor for the Drum Brae/Gyle ward has now launched the online petition in a bid to persuade the Post Office to provide the same level of service locally.

Councillor Euan Hyslop outside the post office at the RS McColls in Corstorphine.Councillor Euan Hyslop outside the post office at the RS McColls in Corstorphine.
Councillor Euan Hyslop outside the post office at the RS McColls in Corstorphine.

Cllr Hyslop (SNP) has been encouraged by the response of locals to his online petition to save the post office, which is believed to have served the local community for the past 60 years.

He said: “I would say it has been frustrating. I have not heard anything back at all. But the response to the petition has been really great, overwhelming.I know the community uses this post office in big numbers. There is always a queue, it’s a busy post office. So there is a bit of confusion about the argument that it’s not making any money.

"A lot of people here have a connection with that post office. It’s been a post office at that location for a long time. One resident said there has been a post office there for 60 years. So there is an emotional connection there.

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"Quite a few RS McColls have been closed recently. It’s just a shame that a lot of communities are losing valued services like this.”

Cllr Hyslop plans to send the petition and residents’ complaints to the Post Office head office when it closes the Corstorphine branch, to show the strength of feeling and call for it to be replaced locally. The nearest post office facility at a newsagents on Station Road has been deemed not fit to cope with demand by locals.

He said: “Obviously the closure is going to happen, so we have not been able to stop that as we had originally hoped. Our pleas to Morrisons have fallen on deaf ears.

"Now we are going to reach out to the Post Office to continue with a local service that can handle the level of footfall that this one does. Station Road can’t handle the flow of people that use this post office. A lot of people here used to use the post office on Corstorphine High Street but that closed a few years ago.

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"This is going to leave people having to go further to access these services. At a time when the council is trying to push the ‘20 minute neighbourhood’ agenda, where someone can access services in 10 minutes and be home in 10 minutes.”

A spokesperson for Morrisons, which owns RS McColls, said: "We very much regret the closure of some McColl's stores, but a number of them have been loss-making for some time and there were 132 stores where there was no realistic prospect of achieving a break-even position in the medium term including the store in Corstorphine."

Post Office Limited has been contacted for comment.