Memorandum from John Day
I am writing to you in relation to your online
forum about the views of individuals and businesses the use post
offices.
Following bad publicity concerning the closing
of village post offices I think many locations have benefited
from the change. I live in the village of Wetwang in East Yorkshire
where we lost our post office but now use the village hall two
mornings per week. This is ideal as it enables people (especially
the elderly and those without transport) to access post office
services with the minimum disruption. It also means that post
office use is concentrated into blocks rather than being open
all week and not being used. With the move to the village hall
we have created a meeting room on these mornings for those who
attend the post office to meet other residents for refreshments.
This has been welcomed by the community as a whole.
I myself am a police officer covering the village
and do a lot of work with the school children in the village.
I am also a school governor and have suggested that because the
school is next door to the post office facility that the children
can open a post office savings account and can deposit money on
the post office mornings under the supervision of the school staff.
This method of thought is something children need to get into
at an early age. Unfortunately the only savings scheme the post
office has in operation is one whereby the minimum deposit is
£20 a time.
This is obviously too much for both parents
to afford and school children to carry around with them at school.
We have therefore had to abandon the plan where otherwise the
post office would have benefited from 50+ children depositing
money twice a week from our school alone.
I have spoken to a number of colleagues/friends/parents/teachers
around the country who have experienced the same problem. I feel
that by enforcing a minimum deposit is causing us to lose the
opportunity to teach our children the vital skill of saving money
as well as the post office losing out on thousands of pounds of
potential customers who once introduced to the post office and
content with the service will continue as customers into the future.
February 2009
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