Love Thy Neighbour at the Post Office

No need to jump on the motorbike for my latest travels fighting for post office survival when just a few hundred yards down the road is my very own South Woodford branch in East London.

Fortunately for local residents this branch doesn't seem under threat - it is one of the Crown post offices run directly by Royal Mail. If you are not sure whether your local branch is a Crown office then just look at the queues. Those with people lining out of the door because hardly any of the counters are open can be confident they have stumbled across the Royal Mail idea of Crown service.

But I was angry - and not because I had to wait. After all, this great British institution was invented at the post office and no one dares visit a branch without expecting to burn time.

No, it was the piles of no-expense-spared Keep You Posted! glossy magazines propping up the shelves. I later asked the cost of production but Royal Mail predicably refused to tell.

The art of marketing is at its most pernicious when it turns community destruction into a great and glorious spin. So when the Post Office rag invites us to 'Join the Debate' and ask 'have we have lost our sense of neighbourliness?' it does seem a bit rich.

The pretty pin-up editor putting the question has a vacant smile that indicates her own branch isn't threatened with closure - or if it is, she hasn't a clue or doesn't care. Readers are asked to let her know what they think so Post! can report the findings next issue.

Pardon the cynicism, but I don't expect the majority of responses will be published. If you want a sense of neighbourliness then a good idea is not to rip out the post office community hub. Surely there are better way for the Post Office to spend our money? Like supporting the community.

- Toby Walne, Travels With Toby, Financial Mail on Sunday

>> See Financial Mail's full campaign on saving post offices