CONTINUOUS cruisers are now finding that poste restante services that are so vital to them are being lost.
Having made good use of the Post Office's 'poste restante' service to receive important mail over the last ten years of our continuous cruising adventures, I have just discovered that many local branches of the Post Office have now been incorporated fully into their host stores, writes Ian Smith.
Restricted services
This means that general shop staff rather than trained Post Office assistants can deal with business. In the process, services are now 'restricted'. And that, apparently, includes poste restante.
To make things worse, the Post Office branch in question has just finished its refurbishment, and the manager has no idea where its post has gone over the last six days! And it has no working telephone, so can't check! And our mail includes three cheques as well as other important forms and stuff.
Waterways minister
I myself shall be writing to the waterways minister, as I doubt that the powers-that-be in the Post Office realise how important 'poste restante' is to a certain section of the community. And after all, it can't take any specialised training for shop staff to pop mail into a 'to-be-collected' box when the postman calls, can it?