There are plans afoot to withdraw funding, worth £150 million, from
outlying post offices by 2008. For the Isle of Lewis, this would mean that post offices
in places such as Gravir and Kershader in Lochs, Garrabost in Point and
Ness would be closed.
BBC Alba's excellent Eorpa program featured a lengthy report on the
issue on Thursday night. The post mistress in Garrabost explained that
the PO is not just for selling stamps, it is also a focal point for the
local community. A fair chunk of PO business has been overtaken by
modern technology; you can apply for a car tax-disk on-line these days,
and more than 3 million Britons took that opportunity over the last
year.
If PO's like the ones mentioned were to close, customers would have
to travel to Stornoway, in the case of Lewis, to do their postal
business. This means a 30 mile journey one-way in places like Ness, Uig
and South Lochs. Many customers in the out-lying districts are quite
elderly, and bus services are so scarce (in places like Lochs and Uig)
that your entire day will be eaten up simply for a stamp or going for
your pension.
A petition was handed in to Downing Street earlier this autumn,
containing 4 million signatures, to plead with Prime Minister Tony
Blair to rethink his proposals. The Garrabost post mistress was amongst
those handing in the petition. The answer was a blunt NO.
It is now important, more than ever, to make the most of your post
office, whether it be in Stornoway or in any outlying village. Do
whatever you can there. Once it's gone, it'll be too late.
This obviously applies to ALL rural post offices, across the UK. Not just in Lewis, not just in Scotland, but right across the country.
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Perhaps the postman (who delivers the mail) could do more than just give the mail through the letter box, but also take mails, hand money out... take parcels. Perhaps difficult, but if there are no post offices, then it could be a good idea...
ReplyDeleteValerie
Hi ! Its sad to think that anyone would want to close a post office anywhere in the world. I wish I could have signed that petition. I would have signed my name a thousand times to save such a place as The Post Office. I hope they don't close the one where I live. I hope that this one you mentioned gets saved somehow. Is the post office you mentioned a historical building you might want to look into that.
ReplyDeleteThanks for all your kind words and comments to my journal. Have a great holiday. Season's Greetings !!!!!!!!!!
Hi Guido, I think it`s terrible that our Post Offices are being closed, so many people rely on them completely, especially in small villages with limited bus routes. Even here our main Post Office has been closed with job losses, and moved into the premises of W.H Smiths for reasons best known to Post Office Counters, certainly not the general public.
ReplyDeleteSandra xxxx
Very sad. Even here in the U.S. you can drive through some older and smaller communities and see a building that once housed a post office, and you know that it was probably a community meeting place.
ReplyDeleteLori
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