An 85-year-old Dunedin woman who gathered hundreds of signatures to save her local postbox was in tears after a New Zealand Post manager visited her home to tell her it was closing.
Halfway Bush resident Phyl Beagley is vowing to fight on for the postbox at 465 Taieri Rd, and will continue the campaign with her friend, Gaynor Earl (86).
NZ Post Otago Southland regional manager Murray Rei went to Mrs Beagley's and Mrs Earl's homes yesterday to deliver the bad news.
"He said: 'It's going to go', just like that,'' Mrs Beagley said
"I was angry. I cried after he left.''
Hopes were raised after NZ Post did not remove the box on Monday as had been signalled, and by more than 300 signatures collected in the petition.
Heartened, Mrs Beagley ripped the official sticker off the postbox which advised of the closure.
"I really thought it had worked.''
An Otago Daily Times report about the petition posted on social media was "getting hits from all over the place'', Mrs Beagley said.
The postbox receives an average of 80 letters per week - not enough to keep it, Mr Rei said in a statement to the ODT yesterday.
A second Taieri Rd postbox, and another three around Dunedin, would all be removed next week.
"I have met with the organisers of the petition and explained ...that we will be going ahead with the removal of the two postboxes in Taieri Rd,'' he said.
"An updated notice will be placed on the boxes providing the final date and clearance times.
"We appreciate that people have taken time to sign the petition and we thank them for their feedback, but the volume of mail being posted in the boxes is too low to justify keeping them,'' Mr Rei said.
The threshold for keeping a postbox was about 30 letters per day, Monday to Friday.
NZ Post relented on one postbox, in Balmacewen Rd, last week after pressure from local residents.
"In Balmacewen Rd, for example, we retained the postbox because we received early feedback from box users, and the mail volumes were higher and on the cusp of the threshold for removing a box,'' Mr Rei said.
