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A Christchurch man fighting to stop the closure of NZ Post’s suburban postal services says the community should have been consulted.
NZ Post confirmed a total of 21 other services around Christchurch would close this year, with a one-stop shop on Moorhouse Avenue set to become the hub for the central city and surrounding areas.
Cashel St Pharmacy owner Annabel Turley wrapped up her postal services this month after NZ Post told her to cease services by November.
The move had been met with anger from some residents.
Planned closures of other Christchurch post shops — as part of NZ Post’s rollback of countrywide counter services — had also been met with resistance.
Sockburn resident Luke Chandler has started a petition to prevent the closures.
Chandler told Morning Report he learned about the closure of the Sockburn shop when picking up his mail.
“I actually just walked past and noticed some signs in the window, went in to collect my mail that morning and it just had a couple of signs up saying that they’re moving services to Moorhouse Avenue. No sort of consultation, nothing online, no flyers you can pick up to learn a little bit more [about it],” he said.
“I chatted with the staff and apparently it was some sort of an internal review that they did and some consultation with staff and that was the extent of it.”
Sockburn would retain its PO Box service but would no longer have a staffed shop and parcel collection service, Chandler said.
“This is actually the pick-up hub for the southwest of the city. So this branch serves tens of thousands of people across western Christchurch, so it’s a massive change.”
Residents in southwestern parts of Christchurch would now be forced to travel into the central city.
“Sockburn specifically is well served by buses and is accessible on foot. Not everyone can simply jump in a car and drive to Moorhouse Ave,” Chandler said.
“I think of residents that live out in Templeton and Halswell and even further beyond that that want to be able to pick up their parcels, they no longer will be able to do so from Sockburn.
“They will be forced to drive into the central city and to Moorhouse Ave to pick up parcels, which is quite the trek in itself.”
Chandler had started a petition which he said had garnered more than 1500 signatures thus far.
“It’s been a great response and shows that the community clearly wants to be listened to. NZ Post should push pause on what they’re doing at the moment, consult with the community and listen to what they actually have to say.”
There had been no community consultation over the planned closures of the Sockburn and Cashel Street branches, Chandler said.
“They were decided very last minute, and they conducted a review with their staff, but they didn’t consult the public on these two particular branches.”
He said people in his neighbourhood would be able to travel to other stores about three kilometres away, but this was limited to standard letter and parcel sending services.
Chandler said he had been inspired the efforts of National’s Bay of Plenty MP Tom Rutherford who advocated for the retention of postal services in Pāpāmoa.
“I’m hopeful that NZ Post is going to come to the table and listen to us a little bit, push pause and just see what the community wants and just really understand the impacts of closing a branch that services tens of thousands of people across west Christchurch.”
In a statement, NZ Post said after consultation with their people they had decided to close the Sockburn service.
People could still access services in Hornby, Canterbury University, Riccarton, Avonhead and Halswell.
