Royal Mail has today confirmed its plans to close 11 Edinburgh Post Offices Including Warrender Park in Marchmont despite over 3000 people signing a petition campaigning for its survival.  

The plans come as part of Royal Mails UK wide drive to shut 2500 branches.

The confirmations of the closures will be met with disappointment throughout the region. Mike Pringle, Liberal Democrat MSP for Edinburgh South who led the protests against the closure said that the decision to close Warrender Park was a “hammer blow to the community.”  Mr Pringle also placed the blame for the closures on the Labour government. “I’m furious that the Royal Mail has gone ahead and shut Warrender Park Road. It just goes to show that Labour doesn’t care about people who rely on the post office, especially the elderly.”

 ”The students who chipped in and did so much to try to save the post office will feel betrayed by this decision.”

 ”Labour’s cuts to local services are ripping the heart out of communities all over the country. Let’s hope that the people of Marchmont make Labour pay at the next election.”

Royal Mails closure list was originally published in August, a six week public consultation followed in which Post Office ltd received over 3532 responses from local residents and attended more than 100 meetings including one in St Giles cathedral in Marchmont attended by over 150 residents.

 Among the concerns raised by local residents in the Marchmont area was the fact that Warrender Park was the only Post Office which stays open until 7.30 pm on Saturdays providing a vital service for people who work through the week.

 Sally Buchanan, Post Office Ltd’s network development manager for Scotland defended the closures and said: “These are difficult decisions which have not been taken lightly. We have considered carefully all the comments made.

“We believe the amended plan offers customers across Edinburgh, the Lothian’s and the south of Scotland the best prospect for a sustainable network in the future, bearing in mind the UK government’s minimum access criteria and the other factors it has asked us to consider.”

Former councillor Fred Mackintosh also expressed his disappointment at the closure: “Despite all our efforts, Labour has chosen to ignore the will of the people of Marchmont. This decision means residents will now have to slog all the way to Bruntsfield or Tollcross if they want to use the post office.”

 ”I’d like to extend my sympathy to Mr Smalley, the sub-postmaster, who made such a great contribution to the community.”

Beverley Jarret, 69, a regular user of Warrender Park said that the post office is a vital part of the local community: “it’s the most popular post office in Edinburgh and has had the biggest response of locals signing petitions against the closing of various branches in Edinburgh too”

“I’ve been using this branch since I was a student nearly 50 years ago and I still use it today- it’s a great shame if we lose this office for all generations!”

 All the post offices listed to close will shut within the next three months and proposals have also been announced to close the branch at Oxgangs Broadway. A full six-week consultation on the proposal will be launched on November 4.

Rudolph Steiner

Evelyn Waugh once said that “Anyone who has been to a public school will always feel comparatively at home in prison.”

However, Rudolf Steiner’s School in Edinburgh is just one of a whole network of schools across the world that focuses on a child’s spiritual, emotional and creative development, unlike the classroom confined children in the public and independent sectors.

Rudolf Steiner was the founder of Waldorf Education, sometimes known as Steiner education. His schools have been a good alternative for parents over the last 80 years, despite past government disapproval of the teaching techniques that are employed. The website says: “The curriculum is structured to help students develop a sense of competence, responsibility and purpose, to foster an understanding of ethical principles, and to build a sense of social responsibility”, which surely can only be a good thing if we are to believe reports of mass disruption, bullying and general defiance of a good core education in many of Britain’s schools.

A recent government report suggests that state schools could potentially learn something from a Steiner education. The Education minister, Ed Balls has launched a new in-depth study into the feasibility of introducing some arts and practical based subjects, such as singing, gardening into state schools. A Government report emphasizes that the development of speaking and listening through an emphasis on oral work, the good pacing of lessons through an emphasis on rhythm are just some of a wide of aspects that could be merged with state schools.

Year after year students from Steiner schools out perform children from state schools. In addition, there are no reports of mass bullying, or any kind of sustained drug culture.

Teachers unions have spoken out about some of the changes proposed claiming that much of the Steiner blueprint is something that should be taught from home by parents.

It raises the issue that introducing these changes could harm the parent-child bond, which is already crumbling away in Britain, as parents seem to just ‘dump’ their children at school.

Clearly core values within society are slowly decaying and it is schools and children that seem to be suffering the most. Stabbings, assaults and gun crime are all daily occurrences in a 21st century school. A gang culture is creeping into our schools and slowly manifesting itself onto the streets in the form of Murders, rape, and shootings. It’s been happening for years and Governments have stood by year after year and watched it happen. Maybe now it’s time to radically overhaul the school structure and introduce, at the very least, some of Steiner’s education blueprint.

By Christopher Harress