An Post comes under pressure to keep post office in city village
Several local TDs hope to meet Communications Minister Pat Rabbitte andsenior An Post officials in Dublin to press the case for the retention of the post office in Blackpool village.
Separately, Cork City Council agreed last night to seek a meeting with the new postmaster, Tom Scally, in a bid to persuade him to continue to run the post office in the village.
Blackpool post office is the third busiest in the city and serves a wide catchment area.
An Post advertised the tender for its operation several months ago. Mr Scally, who runs the post office in Ballinlough, was one of five people who tendered — with four of those tenders providing for the relocation of the post office to Blackpool Shopping Centre.
An Post awarded the contract to Mr Scally, with the proposal to relocate to the shopping centre due to take effect from Feb 11.
But it has sparked controversy and is being vigorously opposed. Almost 150 people attended a meeting in the local community centre yesterday to discuss the campaign to retain the post office in the village.
Dáil deputies Jonathan O’Brien, Dara Murphy and Billy Kelleher agreed to seek a meeting today with Mr Rabbitte and An Post executives to outline the local community’s case.
Sinn Féin Cllr Thomas Gould said he, and ward colleagues Mick Barry, Catherine Clancy, Pat Gosch, Kenneth O’Flynn and Joe Kavanagh, would seek a meeting with Mr Scally this week to ask him to consider continuing to run the post office in the village.
“The decision to relocate the post office was made on purely commercial grounds, and without any consultation with the local community,” Mr Gould said.
“No consideration was given to the impact it will have on the local community, on local businesses, or on Cork City Council’s action plan for the area.”
Cllr Terry Shannon (FF) said post offices were often spoken as a vital part of rural Ireland. “But they are as important in residential city areas too. We can’t force An Post to change its mind, but we can ask it to reconsider,” he said.
An Post has said the matter for the location of a post office in Blackpool was one for the new post master.
It is understood that work has already started on the fitting out of a unit in the shopping centre.
An attempt four years ago to relocate the post office from the village was scrapped after a strong local campaign.
