Last updated 19:37, Thursday, 13 March 2008

IF it were an exclusively rural issue it would be bad enough but the relentless determination to close post offices, in spite of obvious public opposition, will hit many more than those people fearing for their remote country communities.

In north Cumbria alone, it’s estimated that plans for the closure of 32 post offices will be revealed next week. The number across the entire county is likely to be much higher.

Carlisle’s Conservative prospective parliamentary candidate has collected 2,000 signatures in opposition to closure plans. Post office staff, fearing redundancy, have been sworn to secrecy over the proposals and their anticipated impact, and post office users, not only in Cumbria but across the country, are angrily expecting the worst.

This whole depressing business collected the stench of done deal a long time ago and although sweeping tides of public dissent ought to be signalling hope for a change of heart, that particular glimmer of light now has the look of a sweet, old-fashioned notion from a previous existence.

Efficient, accessible communication systems and postal services used to be the hallmarks of a civilised society. They used to be proudly not-for-profit public services, serving pensioner and corporate business equally.

But profit’s bottom-line domination has hijacked so many of our public services now that the argument for maintaining the very name has worn perilously thin.

In rural communities the loss of a post office most often translates into the loss of a village shop, a vital link with the wider world and a focal point for community and local economic activity. In short, prospects following the withdrawal of yet another amenity couldn’t look much bleaker.

Elsewhere, in towns and cities throughout the UK the bad news of another public service biting the dust of political and financial expediency is awaited with similar gloom, and the outcome will be another nail in the coffin of third-rate Britain.