This Friday and Saturday residents in Strachur were shocked to find that it was decided last week to cut the number of days the Strachur post office would be open from 6 days to 3.
Not only that, but that the facility, which serves over 800 people in Strachur, and a wider populations of thousands in North Cowal, was under threat of permanent closure.
Locals have been expressing their displeasure that the plans to reduce opening times prior to potential closure have been rushed into place and no consultation, or indeed wider communication with the community has been entered into either by the new owners of the shop or the Post Office themselves.
Strachur has a significant older community which depend upon this rural post office to claim benefits and to bank, and its withdrawal will leave them needing to make a weekly 17 mile each-way trip to Sandbank and back – if that is, as is rumoured, the Sandbank post office is reopened.
It transpires that the previous owner of the Strachur Post Office resisted plans by the Post Office itself to close the facility in Strachur for her 11 year tenure, and by doing so ensured that a critical community service was maintained. It looks as if the new owners, who have been running the business now for several months, have not been as aware of the essential function this rural post office fulfils and therefore not resisted as strongly the Post Office’s desire to close the service.
Irate locals are making their views known both to the owners of the shop and also the Post Office, essential if the case is to be made for the Post Office to remain open.
Strachur Post Office is presently open Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.