The Post Office is the heart of the rural community (Should we save the Post Office?)

Name: whatanoldbag

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Product:	Should we save the Post Office?
Date:	04.05.08 (85 review reads)
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Advantages: Social centre of the small village, provides for basic needs,

Disadvantages: If you're not queueing then the PO might not have enough business to keep going

Having read Plipplop's empassioned argument against the Post Office I feel compelled to offer the case for the defence.

A lot of the reasons given for closing post offices rely on the assumption that there are better and cheaper ways of meeting customers' needs, and that our attachment to the Post Office is emotional. That is a good point, and it may be true, but I still think there is a rational argument for maintaining post offices, especially in rural areas, such as in the village where I live. In thirty years' time, every septuagenarian pensioner will be using an ipod or what the equivalent will be by then, and be comfortable paying for car tax on line, but the current genereation of pensioners is in two camps. Yes there are all those silver surfers out there but there are also a lot of older people who would massively struggle to use facilities that were alien to them, and who do not own computers, nor have a need to pay broadband fees etc.

And without the internet, the post office is important. It is true actually in my view that we could reasonably now expect younger people on benefits to have bank accounts (i.e. those under retirement age), especially as it is perfectly possible to have a bank account with no charges, and with no overdraft etc if you have a poor credit history, but I think we need to be sympathtic to elderly people on pensions.

Now the economic truth is that if the majority of us stop using the post office, then it will become increasingly uneconomic, so the reverse might also be argued - that we should use it as often as possible to keep it alive.

But why does it matter? Why can't we just go to the supermarket and do everything there? Well in my case, I live in a village which has two pubs, a village hall and social club, a playground, two churches, a butchers, a florist, a small co-op, a newsagents, doctors' surgery, a library open three days a week, and, yes a post office. As a stay at home mum I really value being able to post things (especially as all the post boxes in our village have small slots so you can't post A4 through them unless it is thin enough to bend in half) and would hate to have to drive the three miles to my nearest supermarket. I buy and sell on ebay to save a few and raise a few pennies respectively, and would not be able to do that without a post office within walking distance, especially with petrol prices as they are. But it is not just the cost of driving - many of the mums in the village do not have access to the family car during the day as their husbands drive to work, many of the elderly are no longer able to drive, either because of failing eyesight or because they are unsteady on their feet or just too nervous as they become infirm. For some, the cost of a car on a small pension is prohibitive and so access to a supermarket is not an option - they shop daily, taking the bus they have a bus pass for to the local town which runs once a week on market day and never go near the weekly shop that so many working people are used to doing using their cars.

For such as us, the loss of the village post office would dramatically increase isolation. It really would. I could myself lucky in the sense that we are a two car family so I always have access to wheels if I need them, but the thought of getting all those shoes and coats on, folding up the pushchair, putting in the boot of the car, strapping the children in, driving to a car park, paying to park, lugging the pushchair out of the boot, strapping the baby in, walking round to the supermarket or other building in the town, carrying what I want to post, queueing, posting whatever, walking back to the car, folding up the pushchair, lugging it back into the boot, strapping in two children again, reversing out of the carpark, driving home again, unstrapping the children, taking off all the coats and shoes again, unloading the pushchair from the boot again and finally being home again - well suffice to say I certainly wouldn't bother with ebay as it would cost me a fiver and take over a hour just to post one item, before I even paid for the postage!

I use the post office perhaps once a fortnight - and I just walk out of my front door with the pushchair and a child walking beside me - this is good exercise for her, better for the planet as we are not in the car; we meet all sorts of people on the journey - other mums, old people - we have a wee chat, pat the dogs etc, which is good for my two year old and probably good for all the other people - as someone at home a lot of the time too, I enjoy the chance to walk about and see familiar faces and pass the time of day. So goodness knows how valuable it is if you are elderly and live alone. Driving stressfully to an anonymous town facility would be totally different and not at all pleasurable.

I can do most of the things I need banking wise via the internet, but I do post lots of things, and especially value being able to weigh things to make sure I put the right amount of stamps on things. I disagree that the differnce between second class and first class is minimal, by the way - I really try and send things second class whenever possible as to me 9p difference on a standard letter is worth saving if you are posting a few things, and on parcels the difference is really noticeable.

If you can't easily get to a bank, then you can have one of their accounts so you can withdraw cash etc - in my village the co-op does cash back, but you have to buy things for at least a fiver, and there is a cash machine but you pay £1.50 per withdrawal. So the option to withdraw your pension in cash, walk over the road to buy a newspaper, some meat, and some bread and veggies from the co-op, is invaluable.

I am sure that things will change over time, and our social needs will not be the same in thirty years, but for now I think it is unfair to impose the lifestyles of the young and fit on the eldery and infirm, who have worked all their younger lives, paid their taxes and deserve some respect in their twilight years. Why should they change the habits of a lifetime at eighty years old? For those of you who work for a living, the postoffice queue is just a nuisance (so do it all on line then!) but for many pensioners the queue is a social opportunity.

Leave the Post Office alone - at least for another decade or so!

Summary: Save our Post Offices!