Isle of Man Post Office (IOMPO) wishes to advise customers that Pulrose Post Office situated in Alder Road, Douglas, will close for business on March 20. Alan Clucas is closing his business and retiring as the sub postmaster after 20 years of running the office.
Retiring sub postmaster Alan Clucas said: “I have thoroughly enjoyed my career as a sub postmaster and have seen lots of changes in the postal industry over the years. However, the time has come for me to retire to spend more time with my family and grandchild. I would like to thank all my customers who have supported my business over the last 20 years and wish them all the very best.”
The digital era is changing the way people and businesses transact their postal business, leading to a sustained reduction in people using the counter-based services, a reduction in businesses wishing to offer counter services through the network, and a continued decline in letter mail (47% drop in letter volume in the last 10 years).
The resignation comes at a time when IOMPO is preparing its five-year retail strategy to respond to the changes, having received approval from Tynwald in December 2018. The business will undertake further work on the format of the delivery of retail services and report back to Tynwald with its results and recommendations no later than October 2019. Therefore, the sub postmaster role will not be advertised.
Julie Edge MHK, Chairman of IOMPO said: “We accept Mr Clucas’s decision to retire and wish to express our sincere thanks to him for his exemplary loyalty and dedication to providing postal services to customers for such a long time. We recognise that customers will be saddened by the news and I’ve no doubt he will be much missed by his customers. We wish him and his family a long, healthy and happy retirement. Mindful of the change this will have on MiCard customers in particular, we are working closely with the Social Security Division and are in touch with the MHKs for Douglas South, Bill Malarkey MHK and Kate Beecroft MHK, to ensure disruption is kept to a minimum.”
Mary Gaffney, General Manager for Retail & Customer Services, IOMPO said: “We are ensuring the needs of customers are met and are in contact with the relevant organisations to help manage the change. We wish to ensure steps are taken to make the transition for customers to collect welfare payments from a different nominated post office is as smooth as possible. MiCard customers can, if they wish, choose to nominate a person to collect benefits/pensions on their behalf by way of a proxy. The Social Security Division has sent a letter to all their MiCard customers explaining the process they should follow.”
“We are aware that many of Pulrose Post Office’s customers reside across the surrounding area and when the office closes on 20th March, these customers will have the choice of switching to another post office, the nearest available are Anagh Coar (0.7 miles away) and Douglas Strand Street (1.8 miles away) – both of which are on a direct bus route from Pulrose” she added.
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