Post offices have long been known as the centre of life in small rural villages. It was the place for the elderly to collect their pensions, the place for those on benefits to collect them, and often just a general meeting place for residents.
The importance of post offices was even shown to children, with one of the most popular cartoons of the 1980s and 1990s being about a postman in a small village.
The stories of Postman Pat show how local communities have depended on post offices as their lifeline to the outside world.
The world has been changing, and the post office has been forced to change with it.
Until a few years ago, people could only collect pensions and benefits at the post office, but now they can get them paid directly into their bank accounts. This change had a huge affect on the custom of post offices. It is said that post offices have lost four million customers in the last two years alone. (2)
However, some people, mainly the elderly, still do depend on post offices to get their pensions.
It is not about the services the post office provides that is threatened by closures, it is also the general community spirit, and also a way of the community to keep an eye on the more vulnerable members of society.
A traditional rural post office, in the village of Clifton Hampden in Oxfordshire.
Image from Flickr user sparker
In a recent BBC article (3), a resident of a tiny village in Yorkshire called Burton Fleming said how the post office was vital. He said that the staff in the post office knew every member of the village, and what times they usually came in to collect their money. This allows them to keep residents safe, as if someone does not come at their usual time, the staff can alert someone to check on them.
Ever since the motion of closing post offices has been suggested, there have been campaigns and protests against it. There are groups such as CAPOC – Communities Against Post Office Closures. (4) Political parties, such as the Liberal Democrats have vehemently protested the scheme (5). Even on social networking sites such as Facebook people are against the idea, as shown by groups such as “Save our Post Offices” (6). Four million people signed a petition against the closures (7), however around two million people were thought to have marched against war in Iraq in 2003 with the government ignoring this (8)…
But why is it all happening?
As with everything else in the world, it comes down to money. In 2006, the government announced that they plan to withdraw the Post Office card account. They also brought in the Direct Payment scheme, meaning benefits and pension can go directly into bank accounts. (9) This was a huge blow to post offices, as this has, according to the BBC Action Network, led to a loss of up to 75% of some post offices’ incomes (10).
Also in 2006, the Post Office lost its TV License contract, another blow.(11)
However, despite the huge losses from the Post Office, Royal Mail’s overall profits in 2006 were £233 million (12), so maybe it isn’t all down to the money.
Either way it seems like the small village post office has no future in modern Britain, and may even lead to the end of village life as we know it.
Links:
1 – BBC: Why are post offices at risk?
2 - The Independent: Post office closures: Death of the village
3 - BBC: Last post for rural post office?
4 - CAPOC
5 - Liberal Democrats: Post office
6 - Facebook: Save our Post Offices
7 - What price a post office?"
8 - BBC: 'Million' march against Iraq war
9 - The Guardian: Loss of benefits contract 'threat to post offices'
10 - BBC Action Network: What can you do about rural post office closures?
11 - BBC: Post Office loses TV license deal
12 - Pension fund trustees 'could sink Royal Mail'
The Guardian: Q&A post office closures
The Post Office
