PowerSwitch

I wonder if the subject of the closure of village post offices should be influenced by a realization that we may have a future where walking rather than driving is the fashion.

The Commission for Rural Communities are consulting on:
'What Future for our Post Office Network? Have Your Say'

Consultation ends tomorrow, so act today!

http://www.ukvillages.co.uk/articles.ns ... ce+network

Done!

Found some very interesting old photos of Bury where I live through that site too - here's a photo of the park next to my house, from about 1955:

Andy, it looks a bit like Heaton Park from my youth.

It's on Rochdale Road in Bury, and it's a lot smaller than Heaton Park. All you can see in the picture is the bowling green, the park proper is much bigger and much nicer and 'wilder' too!

Heaton Park is just down the M56 on the way into Manchester, and of course it's huge, one of the biggest parks around these parts. Really nice park too.

Do you hail from Mankchester then Dinor?

Andy,
My mistake, I used to go to Heaton park a lot as a kid back in the 50's and sixties. I hail from the slums of Hanky Park in Salford, from the poorest of the poor

Ah, Salford - Morrissey country!

I work just across the Manchester Ship Canal in Old Trafford.

biffvernon wrote:I wonder if the subject of the closure of village post offices should be influenced by a realization that we may have a future where walking rather than driving is the fashion.

The Commission for Rural Communities are consulting on:
'What Future for our Post Office Network? Have Your Say'

Consultation ends tomorrow, so act today!

http://www.ukvillages.co.uk/articles.ns ... ce+network

I've bunged this up in answer to question two of the survey (Are there other significant factors affecting the future of the post office network which appear to have been overlooked in the Government's proposed approach?)

Unfortunately, I don't have enough time to give considered or informed responses to the other questions, so responded "No view".

I wrote:Fewer of us are going to have access to private transport and more of us will be reliant on walking or cycling. This is happening because the global supply of liquid fuels for transportation is peaking now. There will be less liquid fuel for transportation available to us in 10 years' time. We need to maintain and strengthen our network of post offices to help in the management of what will be a pressing need to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels. This has of course already been identified as a priority by the government because of climate change. The forced energy constrained era we are entering means we must not make any policy decisions that make the problem worse. Reducing the size of the post office network would be an example of making the problem worse.

Bumped, because of the announcement of the closure of some 2500 post-offices.

In particular, one PO in York has been earmarked for closure even though it was 'mentioned in dispatches' in a planning application to build 700 houses (as a facility the new people could use, without having to drive). A bunch of us staged a photo-op there last week: I was first to arrive and got interviewed by Radio York...and of course couldn't resist mentioning Peak Oil!

It's not just villages. My parents live in Amersham (Buckinghamshire, very top left hand corner of the Tube map, not all that far from London), a market town of 17700 people. They have just closed the post office there.

It really beggars belief, and is the sort of thing that proves they are lying when they claim they want to improve services, prevent the decline of town centres, encourage walkable/cyclable/public transport-using communities, etc.

s.

As a subpostmaster I worry about how long mail services could be sustained.

Neil

Neily at the peak wrote:As a subpostmaster I worry about how long mail services could be sustained.

Neil

I can foresee cutbacks in mail services to remote areas in order to save fuel and wages, twice weekly deliveries instead of every day perhaps.

Savings could also be achieved by combining postal work with other public sector jobs in remote areas.
For example many remote small villages have a bus service, there is no reason why the bus driver cant deliver and collect mail (subject to proper security vetting) The post unions would presumably oppose the idea.

Alternativly the postal service could perhaps offer to read utility meters in remote areas(for a fee of course) thus saving the wages and fuel costs of sending someone on a long journey to read a handfull of meters.

Another possibility would be to combine the role of police officer/PCSO with delivering and collecting mail in remote areas.
In areas with little post and few resources to pay for policing, combining to two jobs could be worthwhile. (I believe that this has been done on remote islands, but AFAIK not on the mainland)