Relocation of the North Finchley Post Office
Report on the Consultation Forum

The Post Office is proposing to close the Crown Post Office in North Finchley, and move to the empty premises further north at 831 High Road (formerly Tony’s Dreamcakes), in partnership with a commercial retailer. The Post Office owns the freehold of the existing building, which will be sold.

The Post Office organized a public Consultation Forum that was held on 31 January 2018, at Trinity Church, Nether Street, N12. The Finchley Society’s Executive Committee asked Lynn Bresler to attend the Public Forum and report to it on the discussions that took place. The Committee thought that Lynn’s report would be of interest to a wider audience and so asked her to make it available on the Society’s website:

831 High Road is considerably smaller than the existing Post Office, and will sell greetings cards, stationery and gifts as well as provide postal services. (There is a newsagent next door, and an independent shop opposite selling greetings cards, stationery and gifts.)

831 High Road will be refurbished, with an automatic door fitted to the left, with a ramp for disabled access. The queue would stand along the left-hand side (no seating provision seemed to have been allowed for; perching bars were suggested). One of the seven counter positions would be for retail,  to the right-hand side of the door, where you can also go if you wanted, say, a book of stamps.

The proposed opening hours are the same as at present, with an extra half-hour on Tuesday, 9.00–17.30, Monday to Saturday.

There would still be seven counter positions, which under the terms of the operator’s contract must all be open at all times, as well as Drop & Go and Local Collect facilities. The three self-service kiosks will not be provided in the new premises, nor will the Digital and Biometric Service (customers would need to go to Golders Green). It is not yet known if there will be a cash machine; this is subject to various considerations.

At present there is a ticketed queuing system, which means you can pop quickly elsewhere while you wait your turn if there are a lot of people ahead of you. The new place would have only a straightforward queue (at present, there can, on occasions, be up to 20 people waiting to be served).

Staffing: briefly, the current staff have a right to choose to move to the new premises; move to another directly managed post office; take voluntary redundancy with an appropriate severance package. Their local expertise would be lost. New staff would be trained by the Post Office.

Royal Mail is responsible for picking up mail, etc. Until the new lease is signed, it is not known whether there will be a posting box (as at present), nor the latest pick-up time. It is also not yet clear where the Royal Mail vans will park when making collections.

The public consultation ends on 21 February 2018. Printed copies of the ‘Local public consultation’ are available at North Finchley Post Office. You can comment by

  • visiting postofficeview.co.uk (type in North Finchley Post Office, or the branch code – 014004)
  • write to FREEPOST Your Comments (yes!, that’s all the address required), but allow two working days to arrive and don’t include Saturday or Sunday
  • write to Mike Freer MP, House of Commons, London SW1A 0AA or see https://www.mikefreer.com/contact