'A vital community hub' gone - Barrack Street Post office closes

A vital hub of the local community for many, Barrack Street post office, shut its doors for the last time last week, following the retirement of the office’s postmistress.

Customers of the post office have been advised to use An Post’s main office at Custom House Quay, or the offices at Ballytruckle and Gracedieu.

An Post Public Affairs Manager Angus Laverty said recently: “Customers of Barrack Street have a number of options available to them including our main office at Custom House Quay and also Ballytruckle and Gracedieu (Hypercentre), all within 950 metres of Barrack Street.

"We have been working with customers to provide them with a variety of alternative options and I’m aware that a number may also opt for transfer to Cleaboy or Lisduggan. The move enables us to bolster business at our city offices and enable customers to access services near work, shopping or around Saturday opening."

The closure of post offices across the country is becoming more and more common, reflecting a significant shift in how customers access services.

Despite these changing times, their disappearance also signals the loss of essential community hubs.

Gauging reaction from locals in the Barrack Street area this week, all said that the loss of Barrack Street post office will be a significant loss to those who used it.

Local to the area, Colm Gallagher, said that the post office at Barrack Street was popular, especially amongst older generations: “It is a blow to the community because will have to go to the Hypercentre or to Ballytruckle now.

 “My father was originally from Waterford and I moved down here about a year and a half ago. Even just being here for that short amount of time I know that the post office here on Barrack Street was very popular especially for elderly people and there are quite a lot of elderly people living in this area."

Colm said that there is now a concern in the area regarding access to neighbouring post offices: “One of my neighbours uses a walking frame and now she has to get a bus down to the Hypercentre and wait around for buses. So it is extra hassle for people to go to a different post office. It will be a big blow. Its only a small post office but it was busy and lot of people used it."

Waterford local James Lanigan added that the closure "is a big loss to the city"

 “It's very important to people living the area. The next closest post office is a distance away and people will have to get somebody to drop them in or get a bus which for older people can be a risk. 

"There’s not many post offices left and too many of those community hubs are closing I think. But what can we do? We have to just go with the times," he said.

Meanwhile, Tom Kervick of Kervick Bros Fruit and Veg in Ballybricken, said that post offices serve as vital community hubs: “It’s about the community and the service it gives to the community. 

"In post offices people are meeting and they’re having a chat and to older people especially that may be more immobile it’s very important to them."

“Ballybricken is the heart of the town and with all the characters here it’s a great place to be and the post office is part of that," he said.

"I see the people down in the post office and they all meet there chatting away, there could be twenty there at once having a chat and that’s important.

"The old ways are going out and in my opinion it’s not a good direction.

"Younger people are different now, they don’t use post office but the old people will really miss it.

“Even with banks when you go in there’s no one talk to anymore. Times are changing."