Rural communities fear NZ Post retreating from farming areas

Postal services are to stop in two Tasman towns just weeks after NZ Post stopped delivering newspapers and parcels to rural areas on a Saturday. Photo / RNZ / Richard Tindiller

By Susan Murray of RNZ

Rural communities are worried that NZ Post is retreating from farming areas, leaving them with diminished services.

The latest area of concern is Tasman where postal services - which include bill paying and postage - are to stop next month in two communities - Māpua and Upper Moutere.

It comes just weeks after NZ Post stopped delivering newspapers and parcels to rural areas on a Saturday citing a lack of commercial viability.

Rural Women NZ said it was deeply concerned the state-owned enterprise was closing post outlets, despite having a deed of understanding on service provision for all New Zealanders.

Chief executive Marie Fitzpatrick told RNZ: “The key message here is that rural communities are New Zealanders, not just the people in the cities, who need this service.

“That is something that needs to be factored into NZ Post’s operating model.

“We are really worried that rural communities are losing their connectivity, that ability to feel like they are part of the local community, they are part of New Zealand society when each of their services gets taken away.”

She said people cannot always do bill paying online because of poor internet connections, or a lack of skill.

And she said it was wrong to assume everyone could drive.

“Rural communities should not have to travel half an hour each way to clear their post box, send a letter or pay a bill.

“To add insult to injury, rural communities often suffer from poor digital connectivity which makes it difficult to do administrative tasks online.”

Rural Women NZ said the closures were continuing with the Akaroa Postal Centre closing suddenly.

NZ Post said it was looking to partner with another retailer in the Māpua and Upper Moutere area to offer some reduced services, selling basic items like stamps and pre-paid envelopes to be posted through a posting box, but not full postal services.

It said post boxes were staying in place.

A spokesperson told RNZ: “From time to time an agency may decide to close down, or as is the case with the agencies in Māpua and Upper Moutere, they inform NZ Post that they no longer wish to offer postal services.”

NZ Post said when an agency closes or decides to no longer offer postal services, it will consider a number of options on whether to partner with another agency in the same community, such as whether there is a suitable agency to partner with, whether the new store would be commercially viable and the distance to other stores in the region.

However, due to the low volumes of postal services coming through these two agencies, NZ Post said it was of the view that it wouldn’t be commercially viable to partner with another agency for the provision of the same set of postal services in these communities.

- RNZ