A Post Office is a community hub. I grew up in the Midwest, where for a town to feel "real" it needed only three things: a church, a tavern, and a Post Office. This is Money has been running a campaign to save rural Post Offices in the UK, which are being shut down for budgetary reasons.
They write: "Financial Mail reporter Toby Walne has travelled thousands of miles campaigning for the heart of communities from Land's End to John O'Groats. To kick off we've plotted some examples from his impressive archive of reports and pictures - with much more to come. But we want you to get involved."
You can read the stories on the map to get a real understanding of what the local Post Office means to these communities and to be inspired by stories of the creative ideas people are finding to help keep the Post Offices alive. This is Money readers are contributing information about their own endangered Post Offices. One Post Office manager from Baltasound, Unst writes, "A large part of my job is equivalent to a social service. I must stay open for the community - it's not about making money.
"If the post office closed, there would be nowhere left on the island to provide postal and benefit needs. Elderly people would be forced to catch a ferry to another island to pick up their pensions - an appalling state of affairs."
those icons look hot
Posted by: jason | February 06, 2007 at 03:35 PM