I was shocked to hear that the Post Office in the St. Nicholas Centre is to be closed next year. What on earth is the thinking behind that?

My husband and I run a small business from our home in Worcester Park and generate alot of post. The post office in the St Nicholas Centre is very convenient as we often have very heavy bags of post. We can park in the centre and are at the post office in minutes.

What are the alternatives?

Worcester Park? We gave up on that one a few years ago when it changed hands – the new people had never heard of the words ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ and were more interested in talking to eachother than the customers.

This is probably why there have been reports of them charging at higher rates than the postage required (as discussed on the Worcester Park blog).

Cheam Village post office was closed although there is a small one in Mulgrave Road.

So, with big bags of post, the St Nicholas Centre is our closest viable option. The Post office in Grove Road does not have convenient parking and, if it is left as the only Post Office in Sutton, is going to become extremely busy with nightmarish queues – especially on busy Mondays.

Also, when we go to the St. Nicholas Centre post office, we then shop at many of the nearby stores as it is convenient. We do this 2 or 3 times a week.

If you multiply that by the many others in our situation you can see how the surrounding shops will be hit by the Post Office’s removal.

Can St Nicholas Centre really afford that? You wouldn’t think so when you see so many signs of the centre being run down – eg, the dreadful state of the toilets, the car park machines/barriers continually breaking down, the run-down and tired look of the place overall.

Finally, I feel sorry for the staff. In this particular post office the staff are fantastic. They are knowledgeable about all of their services and are always polite and courteous.

Apparently the plan is to open just two new counters at the Grove Road site so the staff in the Centre’s post office face an uncertain future. I hear that other Post Offices such as Wallington and Raynes Park are also set to close.

If the Post Office don’t want business like ours, then I’m sure there will be other companies out there who do. It just seems a ridiculous short-sighted decision for both the Post Office and the St. Nicholas Centre.

Katherine Downes, Worcester Park