Recently on the news I heard that many post offices are being closed down among them Bradford Road Post Office in Miles Platting and Collyhurst Post Office, because they aren’t making enough profit.
There is a Post office left on Broadhaven Road in Miles Platting, but there are plenty of people like myself who would find the trek from other points in Miles Platting and Collyhurst, over to Broadhaven Road a bit too much to cope with. Particularly during the winter months. If we have to travel further for our pensions/benefits etc we are also being left more vulnerable, despicable though it is, there are some people who would think nothing of mugging the disabled or elderly. Even though the community I live in is quite a warm and friendly place not everyone has someone who could go for them and I wouldn’t dream of imposing on my neighbours to go to the post office for me or any other shop for that matter. Like lots of other disabled or elderly people, I value my indepen-dence and would rather attend to my daily business myself for as long as I can. I find it irksome that the Post Office spends thousands of £s on television advertisements telling us about all the different services it provides i.e. changing money into euros for holidays, checking to make sure you’ve filled in you passport form etc.
Another way the post office has wasted money in my opinion was the farce about them changing their name to ‘Consignia’ the TV advertising must have cost thousands then as far as I am aware the name changed back a few months later!
I understand that the Post Office is a business and it must make a profit but it seems to me that years ago, there were hundreds of small shops (not just post offices) in Miles Platting and Collyhurst and they all seemed to do quite well, the bigger companies seem to be getting greedier. They are asking people to write in with their views and objections but I am fed up of being asked to give an opinion that gets ignored. My neighbours have started collecting signatures to show that we still want to keep the local Post Offices, but realistically what is the point?
I can’t help thinking about the governments idea, that encour-aged people to have their benefits paid into bank accounts; this could be part of the reason the post offices are not as profitable as they once were!
Miles Platting and Collyhurst haven’t got very much in the way of local amenities anymore and many of my neighbours like myself feel as though we have lost too many already, what is left for us to make life easier?
Maggie Paul
