REGULAR L’Islet post office user Hugo Towers has attacked moves to close the popular premises. ‘I’m furious. It’s so typical of this attitude that everything has to make a profit and that is not the reason why [the postal service] was commercialised,’ he said.

Mr Towers believes the social impact has been ignored.

‘They commercialised and set up the OUR, which has manifestly failed. No deputy has said or done anything that has queried the accounts or called to book the philosophy they are following.

‘It’s incredibly busy and, short-term, it’s badly researched and takes no account at all of social needs.’

Mr Towers said it had a twice-daily parcel collection and the postbox outside was busy every day.

‘I have never seen so many elderly people so angry.’

He claimed that Guernsey now had the most expensive letter packet prices in the British Isles, following recent changes in international rates after the withdrawal of the small packet rate.

‘I spend in excess of £1,000 a year minimum at L’Islet post office.’

He called for a requete to keep it open and for a full investigation into what Guernsey Post is doing.

‘The commercialisation that was envisaged by the States has not worked and Guernsey Post is an outrageous example and is even worse than Cable & Wireless.’

The College of Further Education lecturer has been lobbying politicians in an attempt to try to force postal prices back down.

He disputes Guernsey Post’s figures and believes that the L’Islet branch makes a significant income.

‘This Post Office takes an awful lot of small packets and parcels through the likes of eBay.

‘They say everything is tied to the UK, but we are not the UK. We are Guernsey Post and L’Islet is a crucially important area for locals in the north of the island.’

Guernsey Post yesterday acknowledged his strong feelings.

‘We are encouraging people to contribute their views to the public consultation process we have launched and which is currently attracting great interest,’ said managing director Mike Hall.

He hoped Mr Towers would contribute to that process.

‘The proposal to close L’Islet was not formulated lightly and simply reflects the fact that there are some tough issues to be addressed here about how our post office counters network is to be maintained if the retail side of our business makes, as it does, a significant annual loss and if we are not permitted to cross-subsidise the retail network from the postal sector.’

Guernsey Post also responded to Mr Towers’ comments on the decision to drop the small packet product.

‘This service enabled mailers of small packets of goods overseas to gain a discount on postage provided the postal item contained no written confirmation; over the years, that specific requirement became almost impossible to police.’

Against that background, in 1994 the Universal Postal Union – the UN body that governs the exchange of international mail – withdrew the requirement for the distant post office to subsidise this flow of mail traffic and thus the office of posting had, from then on, to pick up the full cost of delivery overseas, he added.

‘This rendered the product unprofitable and, with the rationale for a discount removed, many post offices around the world have dropped the product from their international services. Guernsey did this in June 2004 and we do not expect to be the last post office to do so.’

The small packet service, before its withdrawal, represented less than 1% of Guernsey Post’s total postal revenue.

The ordinary international letter packet service is unchanged and remains available as an alternative for former users of the small packet service.