News Post Office is coping
A Post Office boss says he has confounded the doom-mongers who claimed postal services would be wrecked by the loss of a major sub-office.
Mark Harrison, postmaster at the Hedley Court Post Office in Goole, claims people who used the Westfield Avenue Post Office before it closed at the end of January are now able to get the full postal service at his and several other branches in the Goole area.
And he said the number of people using the post office on Boothferry Road had increased substantially.
He added that large queues that many had forecast at Hedley Court had not materialised.
Instead, the post office has taken on extra staff and was now operating with nine counters, as opposed to six, to meet the extra demand.
"It's great news for the Post Office and we'll also be increasing the services out in the villages," said Mr Harrison.
Hedley Court has taken on an extra staff member - making a total of nine - and is looking to add another if the customer numbers continue to grow.
In addition, there are two extra counters.
"We've adjusted our staff and now have six counters wherease we normally run on a maximun of four, so there have not really been the queues that they forecast," added Mr Harrison. "If we do get a queue it moves quite quickly."
Earlier this year the closure of the Westfeld Avenue branch led to an outcry by residents and councillors, who feared the loss of yet another post office in the area would lead to lengthy queues and a loss of Post Office services for a good many people, particularly the elderly and people without transport.
But Mr Harrison says those dire forecasts had not materialised either, thanks to the new outreach services in outlying vilages of Airmyn, Reedness and Eastoft, which offer full Post Office services.
The post offices in those villages are open two days a week and are manned by staff from Hedley Court.
The one in Airmyn - whose post office closed a few years ago - reopens on Tuesday, March 20 and thereafter will be held at the village hall every Tuesday afternoon, between 1.30pm and 4pm, and on Wednesdays from 10.30am to 1pm.
The service at Reedness - which restarts on Thursday, March 20 - will remain at the post office and will be open on Mondays and Thursdays from 9am to 12pm. It, too, will offer the full Post Office service, including car-tax and passport services.
Postmistress Sharon Hart will continue to run the Reedness service when it changes to outreach.
Also on March 20, the service at Eastoft will resume at the village hall, following the closure of the local post office on March 17.
Thereafter, post-office services at the village hall will be available from 9am to 12pm on Tuesdays and 1pm until4pm on Thursdays.
Mr Harrison added: "It is our intention that the communities at Reedness, Airmyn and Eastoft continue to be able to access Post Office services in their own comunities."
However, town mayor Councillor Jean Kitchen wasn't very impressed with the new postal services.
She said: "I'm pleased to hear things are working out at Hedley Court but it's not the same as having a post office in your own village.
"I think it's a shame post offices are closing. Everything is going backwards at the moment and services are being reduced everywhere."
Cllr Kitchen said the closure of Westfield Avenue had been a big blow to people in her Goole North ward.
"It was very handy for people to use those facilities, particularly the elderly, who wanted to be able to get their pension money easily and used the ATM machine there. Now they have to come into town to do that."
Published on 28th February 2008 in News.
Add to: Digg | del.icio.us | Reddit
Comments
There are currently no comments
Comments are closed for this article.