Unless they hire some of the TGJ staff?
Actually I think the One-Stop is a non-starter. How would Royal Mail vans collect? Drive up onto the pavement several times a day?
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I’m sure when the old PO was next door to the One Stop, they parked on Derby Hill?
It would be great if they could hire the people from the existing post office. I doubt the timings would work out though. Incidentally, I was in there today and asked for an update, and the guy there said they’re not expecting to hear anything before July.
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so stressful for the poor staff..not knowing if they’ll have a job later in the year 
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Lifted from the other place. Post Office Ltd are looking for a new franchisee to take over PO services at the existing TG Jones store which may suggest Forest Hill is on the list of 150 closures.
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Modella has not yet published a list of the 150 WH Smiths / TG Jones stores that are threatened with closure, but there has been quite a lot of coverage of the fact that a number of Post Offices are threatened … so this does not give confidence that ours may be saved just because we need the Post Office.
The link above (thanks, and well found @rbmartin ) proves the Post Office are actively, and urgently, looking for an alternative, and this bodes ill for the longevity of our TG Jones store.
My first question is: Where would be a good alternative site for the Post Office? Will we see a dedicated Post Office location (maybe taking over the KFH site?), or might it be co-located with another business … in which case, which? Superdrug?
The next question will be, what should replace TG Jones? I’ve considered whether we could get Boots to move back into Forest Hill and provide a fully stocked pharmacy service this time. Maybe you have other ideas?
It could make a good station building with a post office upstairs or better still demolish it and build a new station building including a lift from the subway.
And build retail and residential on the footprint of the existing station and some of the car park. Retail could include a major food retailer (Tesco/Waitrose/M&S).
The demolition of whsmiths and william hill are the perfect starting point for the regeneration of Forest Hill town centre. A post office could be placed in a location that didn’t require their vans to be parked on the pavement in the middle of the town centre seemingly whenever I go past.
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two things:
- tunnelling the A205
- Reinstating the ‘island’ platform between tracks 2 and 3 at Forest Hill Station
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I think the new onestop convenience store is the perfect place to host a post office. They’ve got the square footage. It would be good if employment could be secured for the existing staff. I’ve tried to reach the owners of onestop via Facebook but to no avail. Will suggest it next time I’m in there shopping
They only have until Friday to apply … so if they haven’t already, it may be too late.
It is a big place, but they’ve just fitted it out and I’m not sure they are ready to redo it all to add the Post Office counters, but you never know.
It would make more sense if there was an adjoining shop they could expand into, but that is not the case … unless, crazy idea, we convert the Sylvan Post into a Post Office???
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I’d be in favour of a rebuilt station/retail & PO/residential building replacing the portacabin station and existing TGJones building which was built at a different time when WHSmith wanted to expand their existing news and mags shop into a wider high street store.
However in the interim I think it’s important that we have a PO in the middle of the town centre whether it’s at the existing site (likely) or another shop in the town centre such as OneStop or even Sainsbury’s.
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I totally agree that it would be great to have a new station in Forest Hill - sadly I just can’t see where the funding for such a project might come from. It breaks my heart that they knocked down the old war damaged one back in the 70s (if I remember correctly). Call me cynical, but the far more likely scenario is that TG Jones closes the post office, nobody expresses any interest in taking the Post Office functions over, and we have yet another empty premises on Dartmouth Road.
Though it is of course massively heartening that people are willing to take a chance on opening new ventures. I love that The Stationer tried out as a pop up shop in Better Things before taking on the lease for the high street’s newest addition!
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Meanwhile, elsewhere on the (sorry, there are no resources) Windrush Line:
Nice newish station at Haggerston:
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Just wanted to share a quick update on this.
I’ve spoken to the Post Office - they have informed me that they have NOT been told by TG Jones that they intend to close the Forest Hill branch. The advert they placed looking for an alternative host was a precautionary measure, an attempt to gauge interest from local businesses to help ensure continuity of service if the TG Jones does get shut down.
And, encouragingly, they have also informed me that they had at least one application in response to that advert. So it does seem that, touch wood, there is a good chance we will be able to retain postal services in Forest Hill even if TG Jones does shutter their local branch.
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A couple of days ago one of the staff at TGJ told me that they are looking to recruit a new staff member at the branch so I took that as a good sign 
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