Further erosion of postal service
From:
dermot dobson
Date:
May 06 13:35 UTC
Short link
Once again, I'm afraid that Julia willfully misrepresents me: I have not said
that I think Post Office closures are a good thing (just the reverse, in fact),
neither have I suggested that it is in any way "liberal".
Yes, Post Office Ltd does not deliver letters or decide the price of a stamp -
it is, however, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Royal Mail Group Ltd, who *do*
have the power to do such things.
Yes, I agree that it is a bit simplistic to compare directly postal charges
from another country to here and I take your point about wages; in the US,
fulltime permanent posties earn between $35k to $55K per year (though
introductory, probationary and part time rates are lower) - which is not bad,
bearing in mind that federal government health, insurance and pension benefits
are also included.
This compares reasonably well to the £300(?) or so weekly basic pay in the UK.
A couple of friends of mine have been posties in the US for several years at a
time and, given the lower (generally) cost of living in the US, lived
reasonably comfortably.
Returning to Headington; like Stephanie, I too considered Mailboxes, but it is
quite expensive (£336 per year) and I would rather support the Royal Mail/Post
Office if only they were permitted to provide a good service.
Looking on GoogleEarth just now, I see that parking is certainly very limited
behind the Post Office. Who(Co-Op?)owns the larger car park behind the
restaurants adjacent to the PO?
It looks as if pedestrian access could be made from the PO car park to the
bigger one, given sufficient good will. That might enable a local parcel pickup
point.
I don't think frequent customer access crossing the pavement from London Road
to drive down beside the PO would work very well.
.