Lynne Featherstone

Interesting discussion over on StroudGreen.org about the future of Ferme Park Road Post Office, where a couple of people asked why people should want to save their local Post Office.

Well, here’s my answer:

1. Even on purely narrow financial terms, it’s not as simple as saying “Post Office making a loss so it should close” – because many of those currently under threat of closure are actually making a profit.
2. Losing a key local service such as a Post Office can have a serious knock-on effect on other local businesses – which in turn, even purely on a financial basis, means a short term apparent saving can turn out to be a long term cost.
3. Anyway, is life really all just about money? I think there are more important values in life than the bottom of a balance sheet. For many people the local Post Office is a key part of the local community, and I think that sense of neighbourliness and belonging is something that matters and is something to be cherished. Put it like this – would you judge who your friends are purely on how much money they’ve got? There are other things that matter than money.
4. That said, we shouldn’t be naive about costs. But one thing we are lacking is any real drive to help make Post Offices more financially vibrant, such as by using them as the delivery point for more public services in future. With drive and imagination, there’s much that could be done to strengthen their role in the community, rather than to gut it.

And if I’ve persuaded you … there’s a petition at ourcampaign.org.uk/haringeypostoffices

Comments

1. andy says:

   29 February 2008 at 5:12 pm

   Hello Lynne,

   Thanks for joining in, I noticed you tried to sign in earlier. Your username and password should work now – we check them all to avoid spam.

   stroudgreen.org
2. dreamingspire says:

   2 March 2008 at 9:12 am

   Drive and imagination has hardly been the mark of the Post Office for many years despite repeated reorganisations and changes of top management. Yet another case of a public sector failure – it lacked vital parts of its business process re-engineering programme at the innovation level, with a decision making process that let new concepts fade away as reports climbed higher and higher up the tree, and weaknesses in handling technology suppliers when trying to develop new retail branch concepts. It also failed to provide good customer service in Crown Post Offices outside town centres.