I took a letter to the post office recently, and to make sure it got to its destination, I asked to send it by recorded delivery. To my surprise, the person behind the counter said, "You do realise, don't you, that recorded delivery isn't a guarantee of anything?" I told him that, surely, it would guarantee that it would be delivered, and he said it wouldn't: for a guarantee of delivery, I would have to use another type of post that would cost me over five pounds. I asked him just how a letter with the complete address on the envelope, including the postcode, and with the sender's address on the back, could possibly go astray, and he just shrugged and said, "This is just something we have to tell customers". So how can paying a fiver ensure a letter will get to its destination when recorded delivery can't? For the more expensive service, do they use a special breed of non-careless postman? Frankly, I felt I was being threatened - I think I was meant to hear this statement as, "Better pay us the extra, old son - you never know when things might 'go astray' - know what I mean?"

Online help for communities setting up post offices, as thousands of branches face change A online resource launched last December will help communities run their own post offices. The launch of the resource is very timely, as changes to the network announced recently, affecting around 2,000 post offices, may see many more communities looking to run their own branch. Consumer Focus and the Social Enterprise Coalition have compiled a directory of 70 existing community post offices to assist neighbourhoods in setting up their own branch and to help those that already exist. The resource, which was developed by CF Labs, the online arm of watchdog Consumer Focus, is the first of its kind, listing community post offices around the country, explaining what they do and how they’ve done it, so others can learn from their example. Recent plans announced by the Government could see many post offices move premises or cut the range of services they offer, so more communities may think about taking over their local branch. This site will give people looking at taking over a local post office an invaluable source of information.’ For more details look here :- http://www.basingstoke.gov.uk/NR/rdonlyres/2CD72496-0753-48AB-8AF9-D2C93B70BADE/0/PostOfficeandCommunityShopAdvice.doc All though this covers the Basinstoke area, there is no reason why the advice can't be used all over the contry. Indeed, they use a case study in the Lakes.

This forum is here to discuss problems particular to the more rural areas. Feel free to post about Public Transport, Village Post Office closures. You can also post about Defra, the Rural Payments Agency, Natural England and the Enviroment Agency. Please start a thread of your own, or in one of the topics below. Please do not start threads on Field Sports, there are plenty of forums to discuss this subject, any such threads will be removed.