More and more Post Offices are being closed - causing the removal of vital services to small communities and suburbs alike.

 

Should the Post Office be allowed to close Post Offices, or is it understandable as they are after all a business?

I've worked in a Post Office and I appreciate their importance within the community, especially to the older generation. They are so much more than simply receiving postal items and paying out pensions, but sadly, in the last couple of years, they have lost many of the services they provided due to competition. I saw for myself the upset and confusion that was caused , especially to pensioners, when their benefit books were removed and they were forced to either open a post office account or have their pensions paid into a bank account. Many of them simply didn't understand or didn't trust the banks and especially in rural areas, the banks were too far away to be easily accessible to those without transport. I worked in a Sub Post Office in a suburb of Birmingham and there was many a time when we went beyond our remit, and spoke to benefits offices, utilities companies etc on behalf of our customers, to help sort out any problems they had. Frankly, the Post Office is often the hub of the community, particularly to the older generation and the uproar that occurs when branches are threatened with closure, shows how important they are and where possible we should be doing our best to protect their future. Sure, they're a business who aim to make a profit, but sometimes, making the lives of people easier should be our priority, especially the more vulnerable members of our community.

This is pretty much the reason why The Post Offices should never have been taken out of the Public sector in the first place..... -_- It's incredibly difficult for pensioners living in rural or cut-off areas to get to a bank.. You dont tend to get many banks on estates or in the suburbs either.... Banks are mainly in high streets... The only access that people in those sorts of areas would have to an ATM would be one of those ones that charges you for withdrawals......

 

..Oh, hang on, just seeing a possible motive here for all this....... <_<

More and more Post Offices are being closed - causing the removal of vital services to small communities and suburbs alike.

 

Should the Post Office be allowed to close Post Offices, or is it understandable as they are after all a business?

 

as i understand it the ones closing are the ones not making enough profit... but as long as they arnt making a disaterous loss then they should be open, its a service.

Privatisation strikes again.

its a service.

 

That's it in a nutshell mate, and everything Tilly said in her post is spot on too... The Post Office should be seen in this light, it shouldn't be seen as a 'business' any more Public Transport or the NHS should be.... Sometimes it's more than just about profit and loss.... That's the trouble really, politicians see the costs of everything and the value of nothing.... Which is why I don't believe that the PO or Royal Mail should be sold off, they're too important a service to the people of this country to be left to the market.....