Loss of postbox leaves elderly in quandary

For the past 20 years, posting a letter has been as easy as walking up the driveway for Bridie French.
The Whangarei woman in her late 70s does not have a computer or the know-how to use email, so to stay in touch with loved ones overseas she writes two letters a week.
She would seal the envelope, walk out the door, up the path and post her letters in the postbox next to her Selwyn Ave unit.
But now the postbox is gone - removed by New Zealand Post because too few people were using it.
"I looked at it (the pole where the box used to be) and I wondered where it is. I thought vandals might have taken it," she said.
When she found out it had been removed on purpose, she was stunned.
"I think it shows a gross lack of consideration for the elderly people around here," she said.
Some, like an elderly neighbour who uses a walking frame, would struggle to walk the extra distance to a post box in Rust Ave, she said. They would be forced to rely on others to post their letters.
"We want our post box back, definitely," she said.
Mrs French's neighbour, Alice Hill, contacted the Northern Advocate to write a letter to the editor about the postbox.
The 79-year-old widow said her spinal condition meant she had to use a walking frame to get about. Without the postbox she could not post her letter, so had to read it over the phone.
"Does the NZ Post realise there are a lot of elderly people living in the vicinity? Some like me are semi-disabled and without cars. It will probably mean a taxi to town to post a letter. Does the post office care?"
Another neighbour, Whangarei district councillor Sheryl Mai, said the loss of the postbox represented "one less community facility that's there" for the many older people in the neighbourhood.
Ms Mai said 36 people had signed a petition seeking to have the postbox put back.
New Zealand Post spokesman Ian Long apologised to the residents for the inconvenience of losing their postbox.
It had been monitored since August, he said.
"We found that on frequent days it has not been used at all, and on other days it has had very low usage. At the moment we are trying to put them in areas where there's more foot traffic like around supermarkets and such places."
In the past year, mail volumes had fallen by about three percent.
"Unfortunately mail volumes continue to decline. Over the last number of years more people have been using email and other means to communicate."
He said NZ Post regularly monitored all its postboxes.