Tuesday, April 05, 2005

Swanage Post Office?

[Post Office re-opened Wednesday 20 April}


Post Office.What ever is going on? the damn thing closed down just like that!A shambles...Absolute Shambles.Dancing Ledge.

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Posted by Anonymous to swanage view at 4/3/2005 09:32:06 PM
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13 comments:

Anonymous said...

I read in the Echo on Friday 1st April that Henk Agelink, the sub-postmaster, had been suspended after some routine enquiries. The paper said he rents the building and is not allowing the Post Office access to put in a new post-master. There may well be no suggestion of any wrongdoing...but is it right for a town councillor to deny Swanage the services of a Post Office in this way? Or are these facts wrong?

5/4/05 2:15 pm
Anonymous said...

So why do we need a post office?
I’m thinking aloud here: If you could buy jiffy style bags with un-weighed prepaid postage along with stamps at the news agent I think most people would cope sending parcels. Accurate digital scales are only a few quid now so you could weigh your stuff at home as an alternative. Postmen making deliveries could also collect. DVLC, savings and passport stuff could all happen by correspondence. There is no excuse for people not using a bank or ATM to make payments and draw cash. The only reason for keeping the central post office as far as I can see would be a visionary taking on of the work of the local bank branches allowing massive economies of scale. The parcel office at the back should fill the role of a central parcel point so you could collect missed deliveries from any carrier, perhaps for a small fee. The post office has never been customer oriented, far from it, and turning it into a stationers/tobacconist/garden centre was a real turn off. They just feed off the needs of vulnerable people who should be far better served. Good riddance say I.

5/4/05 5:09 pm
Anonymous said...

Trouble is the post office has a very wide remit,one very important one being the old age pensioners that draw their pensions at the PO.

Herston has had a line of old folk half way round the block trying to get some money.
Not funny.
Dancing Ledge

5/4/05 8:19 pm
Anonymous said...

According to the Echo report the acting sub-postmaster has left for health reasons. Maybe acting-acting sub-postmasters are not easy to find to cover for a while.
Dancing Ledge will be relieved to know that pensioners are now paid by bank transfer and they can get their money from one of the many machines round the town.

5/4/05 10:15 pm
Anonymous said...

Thanks for that.
But there were still a great many pensionesr at Herston Sub-post office, and I am told they ran out of money.

The idea that a seaside town of this size does not need a post office? I find quite unbeleivable.
Dancing Ledge

6/4/05 9:01 am
Anonymous said...

This is the article that was in the Echo last Friday...
FRUSTRATED customers have reacted angrily to the shock closure of Swanage Post Office.

The busy post office was being run by a temporary sub-postmaster following the suspension of Swanage subpostmaster Henk Agelink last October.

Post Office spokesman Dan Panes said: "We have another interim sub-postmaster lined up but we can't get access to the premises which seems ludicrous."

Henk Agelink has continued to operate the retail section of the franchise. He has refused to comment on the closure and says he is taking legal advice.

Swanage resident Karen Luker said: "It's fine for people with transport who can get to the post office at Herston but that is only open part-time anyway.

"It is utter madness for this to close - they take a lot of payments because of the building societies that have closed in the area."

Swanage businessman Andy Burnett said: "A lot of my business is mail order - I think it is disgusting that this can happen."

Post Officer leaders have launched an urgent appeal for a permanent new sub-postmaster and anyone interested is urged to contact 0845 6016260.

Post Office spokesman Mr Panes said: "Last October a routine audit carried out randomly on all post offices brought up a couple of issues that we had to investigate and the sub-postmaster at that time was suspended on a precautionary basis. At the moment the premises are rented by the former sub-postmaster and if he won't let us in there we can't do anything."

Wareham sub-postmaster Peter Holloway, who also runs Stoborough Post Office and had been acting as a temporary interim at Swanage, said: "It made me ill and it is for health reasons that I'm saying I can't do it any more."

Mr Panes said: "We want a post office in Swanage and we are doing everything we can to try and get a post office up and running. If we had our own way there would not have been a break in service at all."

6/4/05 10:23 am
Anonymous said...

Swanage doesn’t need a post office like it hasn’t got a dairy anymore. You should be able to buy your milk/have it delivered from who you want as and when you please, and not be bound to some half day closing, form filling, “sorry my green light isn’t on” archaic institution. Would anyone suggest BT and O2 should be put back under the control of the post office?

6/4/05 11:56 am
Anonymous said...

Yes, and all the other public assets that damned woman flogged off cheap. "Selling the family silver" was the expression used by Harold MacMillan to describe this shameless pillage of public property and he was right.

6/4/05 1:48 pm
Anonymous said...

I very much doubt that its possible to make a profit from this post office now that it has lost pension payments. The answer is to redevelop the site with a large shop with a PO counter in it like you get in other places. In any case, its one of the worst eyesores in Swanage. The postoffice is exempt from the planning regulations and could build what it liked, hence we have a brown brick building with vertical black windows next to one composed of horizontal red and white bands. Its even a different height and built on a different alignment. The result is something resembling a rotting tooth, and thats before getting onto structural matters like a leaking roof.

Knock it down and start again, with some affordable flats over it so that a few people who work in the tpwn centre can walk to work.

6/4/05 1:58 pm
Anonymous said...

Having lived and run a business in the town centre for over 25 years I perhaps see more of the use made of the post office, which is vast especially in the season, you should see the sixe and number of parcels that the foreign students send home, we need an office of this scale. if it were to close then we would end up with another kiosk in the co-op.

Henk Agelink was sacked following an investigation and was left with only the failing small shop side of the business to run.
He obviously sees no responsibility to the town or it's members as a town councillor or ex-sub postmaster.
What about all those post office staff who have lost their jobs does Mr. Agelink have any sympathy for them or is he just being bloody minded when faced with the truth.
Time for Mr. Agelink to give up the remainder of his lease, give Swanage back it's post office and resign as town councillor.
Perhaps then he can regain some respect from this community that he is supposed to serve and retain a small amount of dignity from this matter in general.

7/4/05 9:25 am
Anonymous said...

With so few posts on this site, thought I better update my last comment ( post no.10).
Post office now open thanks to court action and refitting of new locks on the premises.
Henk Agelink has been banned from the premises and thankfully the staff have been re-employed.
Justice at last.

21/4/05 8:18 pm
Anonymous said...

And yet he carries on as a Town Councillor, represnting the interests of the people of Swanage! Another sign of how the Tories think they are above everyone else, and that normal rules don't apply to them...

22/4/05 9:01 am
Anonymous said...

I hope anyone who reads this now sees what really happened !!!

9/1/24 1:27 pm

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