Musings from the Merse
Friday, July 24, 2009
HUTTON POST OFFICE. IS ANYONE LISTENING?
When Huttonian first started blogging (in pure innocence and naive ignorance of the consequences) he did so as he felt the 'ordinary villager' needed a voice, often reluctant to speak up against the diktats of the local 'establishment'-the highheidyins of the Village Hall Committee and the Kirk Elders, interchangeable in many cases. We have a classic case at this moment-the strange one of the (potentially) disappearing post office in which Huttonian feels a nostalgic almost proprietorial interest as a former sub post master. As keen bloggees from recent posts will know and as again reported in the Berwickshire's account of the last meeting of the Hutton and Paxton Community Council-you'll need to fork out 65p on the hard copy, not available on line-the Hall Committee has formally asked that the mobile PO not to park outside the Village Hall during its two weekly visits to Hutton, one hour each Monday and Friday. Thus pensioners (and we are now talking about a maximum of 7 regular elderly customers)will lose any chance of sheltering within the Hall in bad weather waiting for access to the van or using the facilities as they used to when the office was in the hall itself. Parking in Knowe's Close, up the hill, beside the parking area may be more convenient being nearer to most of the pensioner's homes but damned inconvenient (no urinal pun intended)when it is cold and wet and you need to go, as it were.
Having talked to some of those affected it appears that the VHC have cited, inter alia, additional' insurance costs' should they have to open the building for an extra two hours a week (not apparently a factor when the PO was under the roof)and a possible clash with funerals flooding the car park and making it impossible for the van to position itself as usual. On the Richter Scale of spurious reasons these two must rank pretty high. The buzz on the (deathly silent) street is that this is purely an act of revenge on the PO establishment for closing the Post Office and a defiant statement of non cooperation. Great. But who suffers? The Post Office Establishment? They will terminate the service at the first defensible pretext: the village does not want us so farewell! No its the customers; a few hardy and some very elderly souls who really need the facility and given that the Village Hall Trust exists to serve the community, they now appear to be falling down on the job-out of pique.
I asked some of my contacts in the village who are unhappy at this decision why don't they say something? The Hall Committee members are all well known and for the most part accessible. Its the usual response-we don't want to make a fuss-heads are kept so low around there that a parapet is not necessary. Nor has the Community Council taken a position. Shame. Someone needs to try and put matters right before the village loses the only remaining amenity and those few surviving pensioners who like cash in hand are obliged to trudge into Berwick; much further than the Village Hall.
And if there really are additional insurance costs (which I doubt) then let us see what can be done about them. I suspect they would not be high and a coffee morning proceeds could probably absorb them for several years.
Apparently the Post Office is asking for comments on the enforced move to Knowe's Close: 08457 223344. But on protesting to them you are really talking to the
wrong people
When Huttonian first started blogging (in pure innocence and naive ignorance of the consequences) he did so as he felt the 'ordinary villager' needed a voice, often reluctant to speak up against the diktats of the local 'establishment'-the highheidyins of the Village Hall Committee and the Kirk Elders, interchangeable in many cases. We have a classic case at this moment-the strange one of the (potentially) disappearing post office in which Huttonian feels a nostalgic almost proprietorial interest as a former sub post master. As keen bloggees from recent posts will know and as again reported in the Berwickshire's account of the last meeting of the Hutton and Paxton Community Council-you'll need to fork out 65p on the hard copy, not available on line-the Hall Committee has formally asked that the mobile PO not to park outside the Village Hall during its two weekly visits to Hutton, one hour each Monday and Friday. Thus pensioners (and we are now talking about a maximum of 7 regular elderly customers)will lose any chance of sheltering within the Hall in bad weather waiting for access to the van or using the facilities as they used to when the office was in the hall itself. Parking in Knowe's Close, up the hill, beside the parking area may be more convenient being nearer to most of the pensioner's homes but damned inconvenient (no urinal pun intended)when it is cold and wet and you need to go, as it were.
Having talked to some of those affected it appears that the VHC have cited, inter alia, additional' insurance costs' should they have to open the building for an extra two hours a week (not apparently a factor when the PO was under the roof)and a possible clash with funerals flooding the car park and making it impossible for the van to position itself as usual. On the Richter Scale of spurious reasons these two must rank pretty high. The buzz on the (deathly silent) street is that this is purely an act of revenge on the PO establishment for closing the Post Office and a defiant statement of non cooperation. Great. But who suffers? The Post Office Establishment? They will terminate the service at the first defensible pretext: the village does not want us so farewell! No its the customers; a few hardy and some very elderly souls who really need the facility and given that the Village Hall Trust exists to serve the community, they now appear to be falling down on the job-out of pique.
I asked some of my contacts in the village who are unhappy at this decision why don't they say something? The Hall Committee members are all well known and for the most part accessible. Its the usual response-we don't want to make a fuss-heads are kept so low around there that a parapet is not necessary. Nor has the Community Council taken a position. Shame. Someone needs to try and put matters right before the village loses the only remaining amenity and those few surviving pensioners who like cash in hand are obliged to trudge into Berwick; much further than the Village Hall.
And if there really are additional insurance costs (which I doubt) then let us see what can be done about them. I suspect they would not be high and a coffee morning proceeds could probably absorb them for several years.
Apparently the Post Office is asking for comments on the enforced move to Knowe's Close: 08457 223344. But on protesting to them you are really talking to the
wrong people
Labels: Hutton Hall Committee, Hutton Post Office, Mobile Post Office
Friday, June 12, 2009
HUTTON POST OFFICE ON THE MOVE AGAIN
A tucked away little paragraph in the Berwickshire which you can read here about the latest trial and tribulation to befall the Hutton Post Office-now in Hutton, mails on wheels, two hours a week Monday and Friday dinner times. Apparently it has been suggested by the Hutton Hall Management committee that the 'mobile unit' no longer park itself outside the village hall but in the little housing estate, Knowe's Close just up from the 'main' street. More convenient for the pensioners, apparently.Better parking as well it is claimed
Nothing to do with Huttonian anymore but I think the Hutton Hall Committee has got this a bit skewed. Much more helpful would be to have their hall open with its facilities including loos for the hour that the van is there thus providing shelter for the mostly elderly customers only one of whom is allowed in the 'mobile unit' at any one time for 'health and safety reasons'. After all the Post Office used to be in the hall and parking there (for the very few who come by car from outside the village)is certainly easier than at Knowes Close.
No decision apparently has been taken but assuming that the 'stake holders' (here there be Vampires?) agree to the change we have the prospect of in winter of the pensioners having to form a cross legged line in the howling waste land of Knowe's Close, a very exposed location, with no comfort facilities available. Mind you there is one advantage when the weather is clement-the play ground is there so there is some thing fun to do on the slides and swings when waiting your turn to do your postal business. 'Come down of the slide Missus, your pension is ready.'
A tucked away little paragraph in the Berwickshire which you can read here about the latest trial and tribulation to befall the Hutton Post Office-now in Hutton, mails on wheels, two hours a week Monday and Friday dinner times. Apparently it has been suggested by the Hutton Hall Management committee that the 'mobile unit' no longer park itself outside the village hall but in the little housing estate, Knowe's Close just up from the 'main' street. More convenient for the pensioners, apparently.Better parking as well it is claimed
Nothing to do with Huttonian anymore but I think the Hutton Hall Committee has got this a bit skewed. Much more helpful would be to have their hall open with its facilities including loos for the hour that the van is there thus providing shelter for the mostly elderly customers only one of whom is allowed in the 'mobile unit' at any one time for 'health and safety reasons'. After all the Post Office used to be in the hall and parking there (for the very few who come by car from outside the village)is certainly easier than at Knowes Close.
No decision apparently has been taken but assuming that the 'stake holders' (here there be Vampires?) agree to the change we have the prospect of in winter of the pensioners having to form a cross legged line in the howling waste land of Knowe's Close, a very exposed location, with no comfort facilities available. Mind you there is one advantage when the weather is clement-the play ground is there so there is some thing fun to do on the slides and swings when waiting your turn to do your postal business. 'Come down of the slide Missus, your pension is ready.'
Labels: Hutton Post Office, Mobile Post Office
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Get me to the Post in time
Huttonian paid his first visit to the Mobile Post Office -Hutton Branch-yesterday. It comes hot tyre from Coldstream for one hour 12 to 1 on Mondays and Fridays disrupting, one assumes, some pensioners' dinner times. One old friend was being served when I arrived so I had to wait in the Hutton chill while she was being served-only one customer in the van at a time for 'security reasons' This could be a problem on wet and windy days especially if a queue builds up and one solution would be to open the adjacent village hall during post office times (It wasn't yesterday) Nor was there much sign of customer demand-I saw one other pensioner in the twenty minutes or so (out of the hour the van is there) so I wonder if the come and get it facility but you have got to hurry is been given something of a cold shoulder.
The van itself is hi-tech with a gsm mobile phone type connection for on line transactions. Its shiny new and with a more or less full time post mistress/driver (It serves three other locations and the pm/d is part of the Coldstream PO not yet closed but I suspect living on borrowed time.
AS I helped the sole other customer down the rather difficult steps at the end of the van I asked her if she missed the old post office-'Desperately' she said and especially when it was in the Old Manse. 'That was fun' she said 'On the kitchen table and all'
Indeed; even if it sometimes meant licking the marmalade* and brushing the crumbs** off the bottom fiver of your pension.
I bought 4 packs of First Class stamps.
A Hutton record I believe.
(* Post Mistress responsibility. ** Pensioner's ditto)
Huttonian paid his first visit to the Mobile Post Office -Hutton Branch-yesterday. It comes hot tyre from Coldstream for one hour 12 to 1 on Mondays and Fridays disrupting, one assumes, some pensioners' dinner times. One old friend was being served when I arrived so I had to wait in the Hutton chill while she was being served-only one customer in the van at a time for 'security reasons' This could be a problem on wet and windy days especially if a queue builds up and one solution would be to open the adjacent village hall during post office times (It wasn't yesterday) Nor was there much sign of customer demand-I saw one other pensioner in the twenty minutes or so (out of the hour the van is there) so I wonder if the come and get it facility but you have got to hurry is been given something of a cold shoulder.
The van itself is hi-tech with a gsm mobile phone type connection for on line transactions. Its shiny new and with a more or less full time post mistress/driver (It serves three other locations and the pm/d is part of the Coldstream PO not yet closed but I suspect living on borrowed time.
AS I helped the sole other customer down the rather difficult steps at the end of the van I asked her if she missed the old post office-'Desperately' she said and especially when it was in the Old Manse. 'That was fun' she said 'On the kitchen table and all'
Indeed; even if it sometimes meant licking the marmalade* and brushing the crumbs** off the bottom fiver of your pension.
I bought 4 packs of First Class stamps.
A Hutton record I believe.
(* Post Mistress responsibility. ** Pensioner's ditto)
Labels: Hutton Post Office, Mobile Post Office, Old Manse
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Come in. You will have bought your stamps'
High Noon. Monday.There it was, dead on time, the Post Office Outreach Mobile Post Office. The shivering queue of pensioners outside Hutton Village Hall surged forward-'One at a time please' barked the voice of the Mobile Post Mistress 'This is the Post Office, customers privacy to be respected. One at a time' Huttonian was the last in the queue, 40 minutes in light rain later (the Village Hall was locked, no shelter there)7 pensions dispensed, 4 stamps sold, I boarded the van and advanced, unimpeded to the 'counter'. 'Who are you?' asked the MPM. 'I told her' 'I have not seen you before' ' My first visit since the service replaced the post office' ' Are you from here?' 'I was but now stay in Duns' 'Sorry I can't serve you. This van is only for the community' 'But surely this is a public facility' 'Public as in Hutton or, at a pinch, Paxton. Think about it. If every Jock, Sean and Jimmy turned up we do not carry enough stock to satisfy demand. Sorry. Back to Duns' '
'But I only want a packet of First Class Stamps'
'Dream on' and slammed the grill shut.
My blistering retort died on my lips
And the wife bent over me with a warm mug of tea. 7-15 AM Tuesday.
(I really must get to Hutton and see what really happens(
But I fear the worst.
High Noon. Monday.There it was, dead on time, the Post Office Outreach Mobile Post Office. The shivering queue of pensioners outside Hutton Village Hall surged forward-'One at a time please' barked the voice of the Mobile Post Mistress 'This is the Post Office, customers privacy to be respected. One at a time' Huttonian was the last in the queue, 40 minutes in light rain later (the Village Hall was locked, no shelter there)7 pensions dispensed, 4 stamps sold, I boarded the van and advanced, unimpeded to the 'counter'. 'Who are you?' asked the MPM. 'I told her' 'I have not seen you before' ' My first visit since the service replaced the post office' ' Are you from here?' 'I was but now stay in Duns' 'Sorry I can't serve you. This van is only for the community' 'But surely this is a public facility' 'Public as in Hutton or, at a pinch, Paxton. Think about it. If every Jock, Sean and Jimmy turned up we do not carry enough stock to satisfy demand. Sorry. Back to Duns' '
'But I only want a packet of First Class Stamps'
'Dream on' and slammed the grill shut.
My blistering retort died on my lips
And the wife bent over me with a warm mug of tea. 7-15 AM Tuesday.
(I really must get to Hutton and see what really happens(
But I fear the worst.
Labels: Hutton Post Office, Mobile Post Office
Tuesday, March 03, 2009
Peripatetic Post
The Berwickshire reports on the first week of the new Mobile Community Outreach Post Office here Huttonian has yet to revisit Hutton between 12-1pm Monday or Friday to buy a second class stamp or have his passport checked or any of the other services offered by Mary the Peripatetic Postie. The article has an image of the previous Post Mistress being the first Hutton customer to use the new 'service' I wonder if she was
the only one?
(Given how fed up local people were about the closure of the last remaining public service based in Hutton)
Having your dinner or braving the elements to get your parcel posted.
Not much of a choice.
Labels: Hutton Post Office, Mobile Post Office
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Post Hoc
A bloggee has indicated what may be the shape of things to come for Hutton, Swinton and Greenlaw: go to here to see what he means. Of course we have not reached that stage as yet.In the absence of any firm date for the start of the mobile service the three immobile ones will continue sine die
And as bloggees will recall we also await the provision of a very special van with the ability to operate either in a time warp or in a parallel universe. Or both. Otherwise the need to be in Hutton and Greenlaw simultaneously will encounter some technical problems.
It is of course possible, but not likely that the Post Office, taking a leaf out of HMG's book will throw money at it: three vans no less. And one Friday; after the pensioners have shivered for hours waiting for the the No 32 Hutton Express Postal Service mobile unit-three will come at once.
And its worth considering the Hutton Think Tanks suggestion of combining the mobile Library with the post office van. That will give you a selection of Mills and Boon to read while the pensioner in front of you in the queue takes what is due in second class stamps. And insists on
two recounts.
A bloggee has indicated what may be the shape of things to come for Hutton, Swinton and Greenlaw: go to here to see what he means. Of course we have not reached that stage as yet.In the absence of any firm date for the start of the mobile service the three immobile ones will continue sine die
And as bloggees will recall we also await the provision of a very special van with the ability to operate either in a time warp or in a parallel universe. Or both. Otherwise the need to be in Hutton and Greenlaw simultaneously will encounter some technical problems.
It is of course possible, but not likely that the Post Office, taking a leaf out of HMG's book will throw money at it: three vans no less. And one Friday; after the pensioners have shivered for hours waiting for the the No 32 Hutton Express Postal Service mobile unit-three will come at once.
And its worth considering the Hutton Think Tanks suggestion of combining the mobile Library with the post office van. That will give you a selection of Mills and Boon to read while the pensioner in front of you in the queue takes what is due in second class stamps. And insists on
two recounts.
Labels: Hutton Post Office, Mobile Post Office
