Save Our PO (Should we save the Post Office?)

Name: Zmugzy

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Product:	Should we save the Post Office?
Date:	14.05.08 (187 review reads)
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Advantages: An important service to the community

Disadvantages: Important services are being removed by the government

The Post Office is the centre of the community, creates a sense of identity and belonging. It also encourages sustainable living by providing services at a locality. Post Offices are not just about buying stamps, they give people access to cash, benefits and government services. Many outlets come combined with a shop or newsagents which makes them a social hub and meeting place for local residents. In both city and rural areas they are often the only place where you can get essential information about child benefits and pensions for example. There is a local village where I live. The PO is the only remaining outlet that has any humanity left attached to it. If it wasn't for the PO the place would be dead. Without the Post Office other business would suffer.

The government has already shut down 4,500 offices and made many more unprofitable by moving key businesses such as the payment of TV licences and pensions to banks and the net. Every effort is being made to get customers to get all their bills paid by direct debit. Government benefits agencies such as job centre plus do everything they can to twist customers arms so as to get their benefits paid directly into a bank account. The government aims to close down a further 2,500 of the remaining 14,000 offices.

The Post Office never was designed to be a profit making enterprise and trying to turn it into one is another form of social and economic vandalism. Making profits should not be the only definition of success. Successive governments over the past twenty years have had the sole aim of offloading the Post Office as a private enterprise. Other countries do things differently. La Poste in France is used as an effective means of providing people with a connection to government services, especially those who live in rural areas. It provides a more diverse range of services such as selling train tickets and providing various local authority services. In British Post Offices meanwhile, government services are being stripped away.

The popularity of the Post Office is still highly evident. In 2006 four million people signed petitions against closures - four times as many as marched against the war in Iraq. In small towns all around the country campaigns continue to keep Post Offices open. The Post Office was created to be a service to the community and that's the way it should remain.

Summary: Keep our Post Office!