RESIDENTS in the Okehampton area are being urged to support their local post office and send a message to the heart of government about the importance of the service in rural areas. At Okehampton Post Office visitors can write messages of support for their local post office on red heart-shaped paper all week. Around three million messages, including those from West Devon, will be delivered to Westminster next Wednesday, calling on the government to safeguard the future of post offices. Allerton Fisher, who runs Okehampton Post Office, said: ?It is a real concern. Everybody wants their local post office, particularly people around here, because it is so rural.? Mr Fisher said the government?s decision earlier this year to phase out the Post Office Card Account, which allows people to access pensions and benefit payments, by 2010 would reduce the number of transactions. He estimated that the scrapping of Card Accounts could lead to as much of 20% of work going out of the door, which was bound to cause many post offices, particularly those in rural areas, to shut. Mr Fisher said staff in Okehampton Post Office were wearing badges in support of the campaign and there had been a ?good response? with quite a few people already aware of the issues and leaving their messages of support. Backing was also being received at the three village satellite post offices in Sticklepath, Exbourne and Belstone. He said people needed not just to talk about supporting their local post office, but actually use them regularly or face the prospect of losing them. As part of a campaign organised by the National Federation of Subpostmasters (NFSP), messages of support will be collected from customers to be delivered to parliament next week. The aim of the new campaign is to lobby parliament ahead of a decision to be taking by a committee headed by John Prescott which is due to report in December on what size the future postal network is to be. North Tawton Post Office is also holding a day of action to collect messages from concerned local residents tomorrow (Friday). Sub-postmaster Nigel Davies said: ?We want people to show their strength of feeling.? Mr Davies said there were three main challenges facing all post offices as viable businesses: ?Firstly, taking away Card Accounts, now the DVLA are encouraging people to do their car tax online, I have already noticed we are doing less car fax applications than we did a couple of months ago. Thirdly, the Royal Mail are saying, ?Why don?t you stay at home and print your stamps on your computer?? We are very fortunate here in North Tawton that the public are very supportive,? Raymond Taylor, who runs the Post Office in Hatherleigh, said the response had been ?absolutely marvellous? with people coming in from all over the area to write their message of support. ?We have even had the children from Hatherleigh Primary School joining in,? he said. ?They have drawn some hearts and put messages in.? ?The post office is vital to any community, not just to Hatherleigh, but to places like Meeth, Merton and Highampton too. ?They are vital, especially to the disadvantaged; that is those who are elderly or frail, who cannot afford to run a car ? where are they going to go to pay bills or collect money?? West Devon and Torridge MP Geoffrey Cox said: ?There is a real danger to the survival of our post offices in the constituency, so I hope everyone will stand up and be counted.? Mr Cox said a survey conducted earlier this year had found as many as two thirds of the post office branches in West Devon and Torridge could be at risk of closure if the Government went through with its plans to remove the Card Account. He said by siding with their local post office, people would ?demonstrate to government the huge popular support for maintaining the network in rural communities.? Mayor of West Devon Cllr Ken Williams said the borough council had been supporting campaigns to keep rural post offices open for the last six years. Cllr Williams said: ?The post office is a trusted institution and it has an important social care role too. When a post office closes, it has so many serious effects on a small community.?
