This observer went over to the consultation meeting in the Community Centre this evening. There were two high heid yins from McColls and another two folk from the Post Office, also present were three members of the public (myself included) and a reporter from the Leopold Street Gazette. The quote in the title of this article comes from one of the Post Office folk.
The low attendance
prompted a few questions from the two ladies who had turned up and
they suggested that there had been inadequate publicity for the
event. Here at the Gurn we weren't sure when this meeting was coming
up and it was this post in the popular Nairn Rocks Facebook pages that alerted us to the exact time and date but there may have been
other information out there that we didn't see. We would anticipate that quite a few folk saw the mention on Facebook but perhaps 5.30 was a very inconvenient time for many.
Nairn folk are used to
consultation, it usually means that someone comes along, listens to
what you have to say and then goes away and decides to give you what
they intended anyway – or to be fair that is the historical
perception, it may have mellowed more recently perhaps with outcomes
being altered here and there in the community's favour. This
consultation was about the Post Office moving to McColls and
obviously people had other ideas about where the Post Office could go
– they weren't aware though that there are no other options, it is
McColls or nowhere – no one else has expressed an interest.
The present Postmaster
that runs the agency in Nairn has been trying to get rid of his
commitment for some time and according to the PO officials present it
is now coming to the point where he will be unable to continue. It is
obvious that running a Post Office is not as financially rewarding as
it used to be. It is a changing world according to the officials,
with the Post Office only owning one of the services they provide (postal
orders) and they have to bid against rival providers for the other
services. With McColls too cigarettes and newspapers are not the major earners they used to be with with less users and readers and competing businesses nearby
– having a Post Office in their shop would help make their business
outlet in Nairn be more profitable. A marriage of convenience beckons
for the two in Nairn?
Nothing is settled yet,
there are access issues to be sorted and both McColls and the Post
Office will go away and consider what has been raised in Nairn before
coming to a decision. The worst case scenario is that we could lose
both the Post Office and McColls but all the high heid yins there
tonight are hopeful the move will happen.
We live in changing
times Gurnites, the consultation was, in fact, about a fait accompli
but perhaps it could be a benign fait accompli and maybe things will
work out fine with a Post Office in McColls even with the issue of the size of the shop. It seems to be working
elsewhere, according to the officials there tonight, both in other branches of McColls and in other businesses.
It's a changing world, changing so fast really in terms of cash and
where we can get it and what we do with it so that perhaps in the
future, a post office might be the last place we can get some?
2 comments:
Well done Mr Gurn for going to the meeting.
So where were all the keyboard warriors? Typical, too busy moaning about something they have little knowledge of to get off their a***s and actually find out what the real situation is. Some of them are asking why put it in McColls, it should be in the Coop or somewhere else. I suspect that's because the Coop aren't interested!
The Post Office is a public company made up of agencies or franchises. The Nairn Post Office has been for sale for several years with no takers. If McColls don't take over the Nairn agency there is a good possibility that Nairn will lose two businesses. That is the harsh reality we live in nowadays.
Just a practical point on the matter of online publicity.
Any Gurn reader who clicked on the link to the "Nairn Rocks" Facebook page will have discovered that the content is "not available" unless you are a signed-up member of that group.
Nairn Rocks is a closed members-only group. Joining is apparently by invitation and subject to admin approval. It might be popular - among its members. But if casual browsers or non-members can't see what is posted on its pages, then it is pretty useless as a means of publicising local events. And posting a link for the wider Gurn readership is a pointless waste of time.
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