Foxdale residents are to be given a final chance to save their post office after plans to close it are to be extended by four months.
Sub postmaster of Foxdale Post Office Ellan Vannin Fuels (EVF) gave their resignation after almost four years of running the post office citing diminishing numbers of transactions had resulted in the Post Office activity losing money for the last three years and to continue to sustain these loses would jeopardise the entire site operations.
However EVF have agreed to extend the notice period of the closure, originally due to be at the end of August, by a further four months in a bid to encourage Foxdale residents and those in the surrounding area to use it, having taken on board the comments of customers and Patrick Commissioners.
Post Office statistics show that the average Foxdale resident uses the office approximately only four times a year and with an adult population of 1,296, that's not enough usage to make the office financially successful for any sub postmaster.
Phill Downs, of EVF said: "We have looked at the possibility of continuing to provide the post office function past the communicated closure date to enable the local community to support this service."
He continued: "We have worked hard to consider a change to the new store layout which will continue to allow the provision of a post office counter and therefore following discussions with the Post Office, the service will be continued until the end of December 2017. During this extended period, the performance of the post office will be closely monitored and this information will then be used to determine whether the service will continue into the New Year."
Isle of Man Post Office is committed to maintaining postal services in the communities across the Island however, this is only possible if islanders use their local services ensuring they remain viable for local businesses to operate them. The Post Office endeavours to retain and increase the need for customers to use their local post office through the introduction of enhanced and new products and services available over the counter where possible but the old adage of 'use it or lose it' has come very much to the fore.
Julie Edge MHK, Chairman of Isle of Man Post Office, said: "We welcome EVF's decision to give customers a further chance to use Foxdale Post Office more in their daily lives and to continue to accommodate dedicated space in their forthcoming new store layout for this service. We, with EVF, will be keeping a close watch on whether the usage of the post office increases during this extended period. Post offices are seen as a valuable part of many Island communities but the support of their future lies in the hands of residents to use them."
Isle of Man Post Office advises MiCard customers who wish to make changes to which post office they collect their payments from to contact the Social Security Division on 685112.
Foxdale Post Office will continue to operate reduced opening hours of 09.00-12.00hrs Monday to Saturday.
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