Celebrations! Appleton Wiske Post Office re-opened today.
The first customer at Appleton Wiske’s newly opened Post Office
When our former Postmaster retired, I feared that we would lose our shop and Post Office. Indeed, the Post Office closed last February.
Re-opening it took a woman with courage and the capacity for hard work. The new Post Office model is not to provide a salaried Post Master/Mistress to serve communities. The new Post Office model is to seek ‘Franchise Partners’: a local business that will shoulder the costs of running a shop and a providing counter staff. Franchise partners receive a small commission on Post Office transactions: they do not receive a Post Office Salary.
It saves the Post Office money. It loses small communities their services.
But in Appleton Wiske, we have been fortunate. Local businesswoman Jackie McReddie undertook to refurbish the shop, and take on the Post Office franchise.
Village shops and Post Offices are vital to keeping rural communities alive. They not only provide foodstuffs and postal and banking services, they are the hub of community contact and news. Without it, tell me so many people who have lost theirs, the village dies.
Hurrah for Jackie, I wish her every success.