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Old 19-03-2008, 15:37   #85
g jones
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Re: Post Office Closures

Quote:
Originally Posted by jambutty View Post
I’ve tried to look at this issue from both sides of the coin and each side has a valid case to put.

In a nutshell some 2,500 sub post offices are subsidised by the taxpayer or in other words they are losing money. With the best will in the world you cannot run a business at a loss for long. Sooner or later the crunch has to come. In this money-orientated society that crunch has arrived for some 2,500 post offices.

Sub post offices, especially in rural areas, are a real asset to the elderly for pensions and bill paying. But being elderly they are closer to life’s end than the younger people and thus will drop out of the equation in time.

Arguments against the closures have been put forward to suggest that the elderly may not have a bank account so getting their pensions paid into their bank account and paying bills by DD are not possible. Pensioners cannot remember PIN numbers easily. Nonsense! I’m close to 71 and I can remember my PIN numbers. In any case those few who genuinely cannot remember PIN’s and other things are likely to have a carer who will collect their pension etc on their behalf.

My local post office at Scotland Bank Terrace in Darwen closed about two years ago, I think it was, and now I have to use the main post office in the town centre to collect my pension and pay certain bills. But it is no hardship to travel that extra half mile or so. But then I do have a car. Others without their own transport would withdraw their pension and then catch a bus into town to do some shopping. Instead of walking to the local post office and then catching a bus to town to do some shopping, they now catch a bus from near home. So what is the difference?

So on balance it is right to close certain sub post offices if they are not viable providing that in doing so the next nearest post office is not a long distance away and is on a bus route.

Rural post offices deserve special treatment even it I means running them at a loss.
An excellent post.

I would veer on the side of subsidy but accept the argument. We have lost 80-90% of corner shops in Peel over 30-40 years so Post Office's were clearly going to come under similar economic pressure outside of the PO franchise business.

The PO on Av Parade, whilst within a mile, is heavily used. I suppose the market will say, 'use it or lose it'.
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