Our socialist post office defies a government obsessed with austerity
Those of you who know us will be aware that we have been leading the second iteration of Village SOS a lottery funded project that enables communities to take community projects from idea to plan. This is an urban story. It showcases the things communities can achieve when they get the bit between their teeth. Life is not as easy and straightforward as a superficial reading of this tale might suggest but there is no doubt that all these things have been achieved and in an era of shrinking resources this story challenges rural communities to do more on their own account as well. The story goes:
When the library and post office in Blakelaw, Newcastle, were threatened with closure, the community took matters into its own hands…it all began when residents and councillors came together to form the Blakelaw ward community partnership, a charity to build and support strong and sustainable public services, social enterprise, new jobs and resilient communities. Assisted by a £10,000 grant from the Design Council, the partnership came up with a plan to fix some of the estates’s issues, and we persuaded the council to spend £2m to implement it.
But Rredesigning the housing estate was just the beginning of their revolution: We have projects to support young residents, including a code club to teach computer programming to the next generation. We have activities for older residents, a local creche, environmental services to support the council, apprenticeships and community allotments. We also have gardening schemes, a community cafe and a project led by local charity, Hearts with Goals, to install defibrillators into every public building in the ward. And with the post office under threat of closure the residents have stepped in once again. By January 2016 the post office will be relocated to the community centre and library. They also want to overturn the post office model, where profits flow into the pockets of the owner. So, over the past two years, they have also developed a plan to bring our post office into public ownership. The Blakelaw partnership charity, of which every resident of the ward is a member, will run the post office and plough the profits into public services for the community.
To me the really interesting bit is the ploughing of the profits back into other areas of market failure which is most inspirational and which underpins my village companies ideas for rural adult domiciliary care.