It's a sad day for Ramsgate's trendy East Cliff. As part of swingeing cuts by the Post Office, Mr Filthy Talk Talk's teeny-tiny sub-post office in Bellevue Road is likely to close by the end of the year. In fact he'd already put up a closed sign when I went round there for a book of stamps yesterday afternoon.
It seemed to me that the great man had been on some kind of customer service course recently, as instead of the customary effing and blinding, he'd taken to addressing me as 'Sir', and asking how my day was going. On one occasion he even got off the phone to serve me as soon as I walked in.
It was gratifying to learn, then, that he has reverted to type on the news of the pending closure. One of the locals reports that, on going in to get a photocopy made of a Victorian print of the street yesterday morning, he was greeted with the salutation: 'Eff Bellevue Road.'
14 comments:
Effing bloody short change me. Twice. Bastard.
Not been in so can't comment on the proprietor, but all the affacted subpostmasters thought they'd bought a business - it's not just redundancy, it's pulling the rug from under their feet completely, compensated with about one year's salary - not a refund for the purchase of the business. Not a good way to treat people, no matter how bad-tempered or bad at counting change...
Oops, affected, not affacted. I'm getting worse at typping and speling.
I popped in there this afternoon, he showed me the details of the £300,000 bungalow he's just bought in Kingsgate. He says he's paid around £24,000 a year by the PO, and that they've offered him £73,000 redundancy, although they wanted him to stay open over Christmas and consequently reduce his pay-off by two month's salary. He's thinking of perhaps continuing as just a shop as he reckons he could do better than the Costcutter (which has just been sold to a relative of the chap who runs the corner shop in St Luke's Road, making all the previous staff there redundant in the process).
The point is this post office clearly doesn't do too badly in terms of trade, and as he rightly said there are so many new apartment blocks going up and buildings being renovated in the area that he gets busier by the month. Whatever your opinion of the customer service he offers (he calls himself Dave by the way), having a post office in the area is very useful, especially if you work from home, or are constantly posting things off that you've sold on eBay, etc. etc, just the kind of environmentally friendly business activities the government should be encouraging. It seems this facility is being withdrawn not because it is unprofitable but because it will be a network saving - the Royal Mail will no longer have to pick up or drop off there (proof yet again that the service offered by the Royal Mail will only get even more abysmal than it has already become). And it is an easy target as it can't be argued politically that it is a vital, if loss-making, village service (the kind of bandwagon the Tory candidate for South Thanet has latched onto).
If you want to protest against this closure please email your objections to:
consultation@postoffice.co.uk
with the subject header marked: Post Office Bellevue Road Branch, 13 Bellevue Road, Ramsgate, CT11 8LB.
You'll have to hurry, though, as the closing date for consultation is 12 November.
Finally it will surely come as no surprise to anyone that this review of the post office network is being conducted by a Mr Herbert.
Where's car-crushing, post office-saving Cllr Green when you need him?
I've been trying to gauge the level of support, and to differentiate between the owner and the facility.
Though I realise that the shop is very important to a few people I am unable to find widespread support and with alternatives available within fairly short distances or via the loop, any campaign would require a high level of committed support.
In other words he's out on his arse then.
Does that mean Cllr Green that you are unwilling to support a campaign or that you would find it too embarassing to support it given that it is this Labour governemtn that is imposing these cuts?
No, I'm happy to actively support a campaign, if there really is local support for the facility.
I've asked all the local residents groups and a number of individuals and the response has been luke warm.
Wasn't Lukewarm the name of Christopher Biggins's character in Porridge?
I can't help thinking that these 'Post Masters' shoot themselves in the foot with their utter laziness.
With the offer of going out in their car and delivering peoples' mail personally, I feel they would soon become an indispensable service and the whole community would rally around them!
So you'd be happy to rummage around his sack looking for a small package?
" Effing bloody short change me. Twice. Bastard "
A contributor complaining of having been "Gipped".
He can. it seems, make an unsubtantiated accusation and call the alleged perpetrator a "Bastard" ... as long as he does not refer to anyone as a "Gippo" ??
A whiff of gippocracy ...
I don't mind paying a little extra for a large package.
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