I live in a village with a population of around 2,000 and when I moved here 16
years ago it had three shops and a butchers. Now it has one remaining shop – it is a Spar store with a post office which is well used by our local community – and under threat of closure. We will know soon enough.
The subpostmaster wants to retire and has been trying to sell his store for the last couple of years. The price and attractiveness of the business depends very much on whether it will be able to retain its post office, so he is anxiously waiting to hear his fate. If it loses it, he believes the property will end up being converted into a house, we will lose our remaining shop.
My village is stunned at this news, it will in effect rip out the heart of our community and force more shoppers into large superstores when we want to retain our essential rural facilities.
I have a neighbour Ethel who is in her 90s and going blind who relies on this store, she can just about manage to hobble there with the aid of her stick, she likes to pop in to buy her bread and milk, to retain some independence. There are lots more elderly and infirm people who rely on this local store, as well as villagers who do not drive, and young families with their pushchairs who totally depend on it.
The store has already been forced to stop its daily newspaper delivery due to the ridiculous demands placed on the owner to be personally responsible for the condition of the bikes used on the rounds.
Despite massive protests, Alistair Darling, the Trade and Industry Secretary, is expected to confirm today that more than one in six local post offices will shut over the next 18 months. They have been deliberately run down instead of encouraged to diversify; they could have been used as payment centres for local authorities, for example.
If, as feared, closing down rural post offices also means the death knell for local shops, it will sadly mean end of an era for village life as we know it today. Four million people have said so too.
Such a shame, Ellee. I expect your neighnour and others like her pop to the post office/shop for a bit of company, too.
Interesting point about newspaper deliveries – in my village they are done by someone driving a car as the nearest newsagent is a couple of miles away. Not very environmentally friendly – but the paper is vital for many elderly who otherwise rely on the television for everything.
Will it be Conservative Party policy to reopen the rural post offices then, Ellee? I think it should be… Apart from anything else, there’ll be a good few votes in it.
If more homes were allowed to be built in your village, you would save the Post Office by making it more viable, help reduce the housing crisis and give your children an opportunity to continue living in the village they lived in when they grew up…
Alternatively, if villagers value the local Post Office so much, why not pay a little more for using the it if it’s so crucial to rural life?
I think that part of the solution to this sort of problem is to be more pro-business generally. Where I live in Prague is out of the city but there are a plethora of bookshops, cafes, bars, galleries etc that seem to survive without being busy. Less punitive business rates/regulations could make a great difference to communities such as yours in my opinion.
Taxation isn’t fair in the UK. There is also the incessant push towards centralisation of everything. As we go green we become ever more dependant on the motorcar.
TV, internet, personal transport … all of these things take our spirits (and our money) out of our communities.
What’s happening there is indicative of many places around the country. Is there any real excuse for the closing except money?
If they are not commercially viable and the public are not prepared to subsidise them to reflect the “benefits” to the local community, they must be shut!
If you follow Picards comments through, you might as well have full A&E provision on every street corner as they are safer for the community than centralised A&E provision!