France/"Our villages are fragile and yet alive": three Lozère communes rally to save their post office

The mayors of three communes in the Vallée Française region of Lozère are mobilizing to keep their post office. The post office would like to transform its location into an agency managed directly by the communes.

Parcel delivery, financial services: a post office is an indispensable public service in rural areas. "I often go there because it's my bank, I need it", confided a local resident to our colleagues from France 3 Occitanie.

Saving the post office

In this valley, landlocked between the hills, the population wants to remain autonomous. For some time now, however, the Sainte-Croix post office has been facing a drop in activity and operating difficulties. These include reduced opening hours, exceptional closures, irregular mail delivery and repeated computer breakdowns.

In Saint-Germain-de-Calberte, high up in the valley, the town hall has put up banners to preserve the post office, which the group would like to transfer to the communes. The mayor refuses this new responsibility, even with a subsidy, and maintains his attachment to the existing postal service.

They have no intention of closing, but of transforming it into a postal agency, thus transferring the responsibility to the communes, even with a temporary subsidy. It's a new responsibility with resources that will only last for the duration of the contract.

Gérard Lamy

Mayor of Saint-Germain-de-Calberte

Attaching importance to maintaining a postal service

The closure of a post office is subject to certain conditions, and cannot be carried out without the formal agreement of the mayor of the commune concerned. Prior consultation at local level is required, based on a shared diagnosis between La Poste and the local authority. The mayor can block the closure of a post office, but not its conversion into a postal agency.

In this context, the drastic cuts in opening hours do not bode well. The elected representatives of Vallée Française have decided to take part in the commission départementale de présence postale territoriale in Mende on Monday June 3, 2024. This consultative body between La Poste and elected representatives ensures that postal services are maintained in the region.

Our villages are fragile yet lively, with a school, a crèche, restaurants and a vitality that depends on many letter carriers and women. If we remove one link, we weaken the community."

Jean Hannart

Mayor of Sainte-Croix-Vallée Française,

For its part, the management of the French Post Office assumes that opening hours will be limited due to insufficient business. It claims to have no intention of closing the Vallée Française offices.

Written with Sébastien Banus.

Source: france3-regions.francetvinfo.fr