Closure of Blacklion Post Office amongst options

An Post claim that among the options to supply post office facilities to Blacklion in the future “may include closure” of the current office. The future of the Blacklion Post Office will be determined by the State owned postal service provider after a review of submissions from interested parties, writes Thomas Lyons.
A three-week consultation period is to conclude on Sunday, December 18.
An Post spokesman, Angus Laverty, said that the company is in the process of ascertaining how best to serve the people of Blacklion.
“We are expecting submissions from local politicians, community groups, action groups and people from the local community. There are four criterion that will be assessed. They are the network coverage needs, the level of business at the office, customer access to services elsewhere, and the capacity of neighbouring offices to handle business if the office closes,” Mr Laverty said.
Whilst there is a Royal Mail post office across the bridge in Belcoo, the nearest An Post office is a 10 mile round trip to Glenfarne, Co Leitrim.
Mr Laverty says that this will influence the process: “We will look at a number of post offices in close proximity to Blacklion, for example Glenfarn, and assess if the business was to transferred to Glenfarn would that keep it up and running. It is about finding an equitable solution.”
He says that by transferring the services to another post office it would provide a boost to them: “We will be looking at all the possible options.  We don’t advocate one outcome or the other. We are just asking people what they views are, but also letting people know that closure is one possible outcomes.”

‘Permanent closure’
The consultation process commenced on November 26. At that time a notice was posted in the local post office. It states: “An Post is considering the future post office service provision at Blacklion which could include the permanent closure of the office. However, before the company takes any decision, interested parties who wish to do so are invited to submit their views on the matter to the address below no later than 18 December 2016.”
An Post say that the public consultation process was triggered by the postmistress’s decision to retire. They say that the process is intended to help An Post come to an informed conclusion. Any decision to advertise the contract to provide a post office in Blacklion will be made upon review of the submissions.
Mr Laverty says that among the considerations to be assessed by the process is the travel distances existing customers may face and how any proposed closure would impact locally. He said that submissions have been made, but that they are expecting more before the deadline.