The cleaver fell during the municipal council of May 23: the post office of Saint-Denis-en-Val, a small upscale town in the south of the Orleans metropolis (Loiret), will close. The postal service should be provided by the Agora, the grocery store and tobacco in the town center. "We have proposed to take over the postal services and we have received a favourable opinion from the post office and the town hall. Initially, we did not want it to close, we proposed to provide the service outside the hours of La Poste but it was decided otherwise, "explain Béatrice Bobault, owner of the Agora and her husband Fabrice.
Read alsoIn the Loiret, a traveling bus helps residents access digital public services
A decision that does not please some residents who have launched an online petition and in mailboxes to "save" their post office: "If we can understand the motivation of transformation into a relay point in a small rural town, we, citizens and users of La Poste in Saint-Denis-en-Val, believe that the reduction in services provided is unacceptable for our suburban village of 7,748 inhabitants and whose demography is growing. Yet in front of the Post Office, this Wednesday, May 31, around 17 p.m., they are a dozen to find closed door and are annoyed: "But where are we going? ", "We're off to a bad start! ", "We should privatize! »
Tobacco open 7 days a week
Dysfunctions are one of the key arguments included in the municipal council's draft deliberation. To justify the creation of a relay post trader, the municipal majority denounces the "current functioning of the post office (low opening hours, irregularity in opening days, exceptional and / or unexpected closures ...) [which] satisfies neither the population nor the municipality." The deliberation was therefore adopted by a majority and denounced by the opposition, which supports the citizens' petition.
" READ ALSO In the Loiret, the bookshop-press Aladdin puts the culture "friendly" in the heart of Saint-Denis-en-Val
For her part, Béatrice Bobault is preparing to welcome this new postal service: "We are open every day from 7:45 a.m. to 19:30 p.m., Monday to Friday, from 9 a.m. to 17 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday mornings. Residents will benefit from the postage service for mail and parcels outside office hours. We have the time slots that match people's needs. The goal is that people don't have to wonder if it's open or not, as it is now. The tobacconist also offered to provide financial services, an offer that La Poste declined.
With the closure of the post offices of Saint-Cyr-en-Val and Sandillon, adjoining communes, the blue bird tends to take flight definitively. "We understand the distress of people, insists the couple of tobacconists, what is needed is that someone takes over the profession! The goal of rural tobacconists is to diversify, more and more... »