This article is from page 12 of the 2014-07-15 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 12 JPG
THE head of An Post, Christoph Meuller, has been called to appear before next month’s meeting of Clare County Council to outline the State organisations strategy towards post office in Clare.
The moves comes in the wake of ongoing feats over the future of the Cratloe Post Office, which is cur – rently not clear.
This follows a put forward by Cllr Cathal Crowe (FF) at last night’s meeting of Clare County Council.
“I think that it is high time that An Post came out and give an idea about their strategy regarding the future of the post office network in Clare. They speak of viability, but the very post offices which seem to be threatened are viable operations,” said Cllr Crowe.
“Basically, if your local post matter become ill or moves away, then the whole postal service in your area become suddenly under threat.”
Representative of the Cratloe Post Office Action Group have their final proposal for the retention of the post office to An Post last Friday and there is no indication yet whether this service will be retained.
The future of Cratloe post office came into doubt in late June an An Post review of operations found that the post offices was not generating enough income to justify keeping it open.
The Cratloe Post Office Action Group has gathered thousands of signatures locally from people and businesses who are pledging to use the post office more often.
The action group have proposed a five year trail period with An Post, to allow local people to support their post office and increase usage numbers.
The Cratloe Post Office Action Group say they will take to the streets if necessary to protest for the retention of their post office.
The Midwest representative of the Irish Postmasters’ Union, Kildysart native Tom O’Callaghan, has called on the government to allocate more services to post offices in a bid to maintain their viability.