Show to highlight impact of post office closures

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TWO community stalwarts will appear on TV tomorrow to explain how the closure of the local post office has affected life in their village.


LAST POST: Dorothy Aldus and Jackie Cooper will discuss how communities are coping with post office closures on BBC1’s The Politics Show on Sunday

The Politics Show will examine the impact the 2008 national post office cull had in the North West.

Producers visited Swarthmoor on Tuesday to interview Dorothy Aldus and Jackie Cooper.

Following the closure of the village’s post office and store, both women were instrumental in establishing Swarthmoor Community Group in 2009 in a bid to foster community spirit.

Last year, they branched off to set up the monthly Books and Beverage Club in Swarthmoor Reading Room to provide a further point of social contact for residents.

Mrs Aldus and her husband ran the Fox Street post office at its old base between 1989 and 2003, before, under different management, it moved to the former Co-op.

She said: “It was absolutely devastating when it closed, because the post office was never just a shop.

“People knew they could come in and have a good laugh, a chat, and a catch-up on all the gossip.

“If anyone was upset, I used to take them through the back and make them a cup of tea and give that shoulder to cry on.”

Mrs Aldus said a man once came in the post office complaining of wind and asked if he could sit round the back for a moment.

By the time she had made him a brew, the man had suffered a heart attack and was sadly dead when the ambulance arrived.

Mrs Aldus said: “I was always grateful he felt able to ask [to come in and sit down], because it was such a friendly place. It was wonderful to think he knew that he could.”

Mrs Cooper, a former district and parish councillor, said the loss of the post office and shop was summed up when two women at the community group remarked they had not seen each other in two years.

Mrs Cooper said: “When the post office and shop went, it crucified the village. It’s a strong word, but that’s how strong I feel about it.

“Not only does it affect the elderly people who are isolated, there’s also the young ones, because going to the shop to buy sweets and run errands for their mum is part of growing up, but children in this village are deprived of that.”

The Politics Show airs on BBC1 at 11am.