Press Release: October 31st 2018

Keep Penrith Special Campaign – The Final Stages of the ‘Woeful Consultation’. Are Eden District Council listening?

Thank you very much everyone. We have 2,500 plus online signatures (overwhelmingly from CA10 or CA11 postcodes), we have c 500 wet signatures from our canvassing, we have had a fantastic response to our postcard campaign, more than 1,000 of 18,000 have been returned in two days. The post office is busy! Please encourage everyone to sign who hasn’t, or to return the postcards who hasn’t. The Consultation closes this Friday, and we will send late postcards in, but EDC could reject them.

Our legal campaign will continue after the consultation closes. To remind you; we are seeking a judicial review, where a judge can decide if this biased consultation was lawful. Our barrister says it isn’t. So far…total silence from EDC. Why? Because they have no answer, as we are right.

Finally, thank you everyone for telling us about your issues and problems. Obviously, we aren’t Councillors, but whilst respecting any confidence, we will raise every single issue that has been raised with us to see what can be put right.

Keep Penrith Special Campaign message stands and as stated in the postcard campaign to all CA10 & CA11 addresses (attached):
Keep Penrith Special and REJECT the Penrith Masterplan; because the People of Eden and Penrith deserve better. We want a proper grounded, practical and sensible plan to make Penrith a better place to live, work, shop and visit and we want to get everyone to contribute their thoughts in building that plan. A plan for the many not just the few, in a true and democratic process and not behind closed doors.
• Build on the Beacon – NO
• New Town/Villages 2.5 Miles from Penrith – NO
• Double Population – NO
• More Congestion – NO
• More Pressure on Local NHS – NO
• More Pressure on Schools – NO
• Major roads on every side of Penrith – NO
• Affordable Housing for Locals – YES
• A Better Vision for Penrith & Eden – YES

Other Penrith Issues – Closure of Penrith Main Post Office
One thing we have been asked about is the planned closure of Penrith main Post Office. The Post Office want to open a much smaller Post Office within W H Smith. We think that is not a good plan. Firstly, we would like the Post Office to stay open. We want to know if it is true or not that it loses money? If it doesn’t why is it closing? If it does, then why does the business need to go to W H Smith? Can’t it go instead into a shop run by a local business? They would get the trade and money would stay in our town. We also want the Post Office to run Post Buses to all local villages. Our postmen drive out from Penrith early every day, they tend to finish the morning round about 11am. They could easily drive a small bus rather than a van. They could then bring people into Penrith for about 11.30am combining two services. They tend to go out again around 2.30 to 3pm to empty post boxes. They go back to the same villages. They could easily drive post buses and take everyone back before they start to empty the post-boxes.

But our ideas have been rejected by the Royal Mail. Here is the email address of the senior executive who responded to our Spokesman when he wrote to the CEO of the Royal Mail.rebecca.redmond@royalmail.com.

“Rebecca works in the CEO’s office. Please respect her as an individual when you let her boss know what you think about the closing of our post office, the transfer of the business to W H Smith rather than a local business and the brush off we got about post buses.”

With many thanks as always for your support.
Keep Penrith Special

ENDS

It must be made absolutely clear the Masterplan is still happening, the consultation is still taking place, and people only have until Friday 2nd November to voice and action their concerns by signing the KPS campaign petition and returning the pre-paid postcard that every household in the CA10 & CA11 areas have received. Why is this important? BIG Plans, need a BIG response. We also urge all Eden residents to follow and like our Facebook page @keeppenrithspecial. This provides up to date news and will also keep you entertained.

Keep Penrith Special launched an online petition on 10th September against EDC’s Penrith Masterplan. Links to the petition and video can be found at http://www.keeppenrithspecial.org.More than 2,500 people have signed the online petition and 100’s of wet signatures have been collected since the launch. Over 92% are from Eden District/Cumbria postcodes (CA10 & CA11), being overwhelmingly dominant. More than 3,000 people have watched our video and seen the appalling wanton destruction that the Masterplan would inflict on the beautiful Eden Valley.

For further information please visit http://www.keeppenrithspecial.org or if you would like to speak to the Keep Penrith Special Group, please contact Adrian Hill on 07831810467 or email mail@keeppenrithspecial.org.
Thank you for signing the petition KEEP PENRITH SPECIAL – REJECT THE PENRITH MASTERPLAN, can you help spread the word by forwarding the link
https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/keep-penrith-special-reject-the-penrith-masterplan
Thanks
Keep Penrith Special
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Keep Penrith Special started this campaign on the 38 Degrees Campaigns by You website. If there’s an issue close to your heart that you’d like to campaign on, you can start your campaign here.

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