Wow; what a day it’s been. We arrived in the town square next the music hall and began setting up the petitions and posters at around 10:30 and when the march stewards arrived at 11:30 we went through the route for the plan as well as the obvious health and safety considerations.
Plenty of people were interested in the campaign and were actively signing the hand-written petition and wishing to take up the banners and placards and join the march.
Public support has been amazing and one gentleman borough along a banner that he had made with “Save Our Post Office” written on it that was used as the main banner at the very front during the march. This banner is the one that you will see in the media and everyone involved in the campaign owes that gentleman a great deal of thanks and appreciation for his hard work and efforts.
The local media was in attendance with photographers from the newspapers as well a BBC journalist who expressed an interest in the footage shot by our cameraman whom we will be passing the footage on to later today once we take a copy for editing into small features for use on the campaign website.
The march left the square at 12:30 and moved up pride hill where we had a platform arranged so that campaigners Jon Tandy and Steve Charlton could address the supporters.
Logistically it could have gone very wrong indeed because we had hundreds of people supporting the campaign and essentially blocking pride hill but everything went well following one or two issues with installing the portable PA system and both campaigners and shoppers got into the spirit of things and were shouting their chants of support the campaign which was good.
The only downside was that three youths tried to cause problems and disrupt the march but everyone carried on in a sensible manner and ignored these trouble makers. Crossing from the square to the bottom of pride hill one impatient driver felt the need to try and push people out of the way but luckily none of the campaigners, pedestrians or shoppers were harmed.
After the march the pride hill area was cleared quickly as to avoid disruption for the shoppers and local businesses.
A post-march analysis took place over a cold pint and campaigners Jon and Steve recorded a special feature and thanked everyone who had been involved and who had supported the campaign.
The footage will go to the BBC along with the march footage so it may well appear on television but here at saveourpostoffice.co.uk we will certainly add it to the campaign website when we edit the footage and break it down into smaller sections for easy access.
Overall it was a good day and we believe that we certainly got our voices heard and expressed our outrage at the closure and re-location.
Campaigners are still fighting this and next week Councillor Jon Tandy and MP Daniel Kawczynski will be travelling to London with the 10,000+ signature petition and the printouts of the on-line petition signatures to meet with Alan Leighton (Post office executive) to discuss the plans and to try and come to an arrangement that will allow the towns post office to meet the requirements that the public have expressed during the campaign.
This blog is independent of any political party or organisation
Posted by Save Our Post Office.co.uk 