PostBank disgust

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 9, Issue 397, 30 July 1991, Page 4

PostBank disgust

1 have just read in the Wanganui Chronicle (not even the Ruapehu Bulletin which is Ohakune's local newspaper) that the PostBank branch in Ohakune is to close in three weeks time on 13 September. The decision concerns me for two reasons: the way in which the decision was first announced and: the effects on this isolated community. First the way the decision was announced. I understand that the Ohakune Postbank staff knew nothing about it until they themselves read the news in the Wanganui Chronicle. I find this failure to inform those directly concerned and who will be most affected by this decision before it became public knowledge, totally unacceptable. Not only is it callous and insensitive in the extreme as far as PostBank staff are concerned but is also an appalling example of poor public relations as far as the 'image' o f ANZ/PostBank. My second concern is about the effects on this community. No one other than top management at ANZ/Postbank can possibly know the sums and figures with which such a decision can be justified but I wonder if they realise what a central

pivotal position Ohakune occupies in the Waimarino/South Ruapehu region in terms of social, economic, educational, recreational, industrial and commercial activities? When the PostBank branches (and Post Offices) in Raetihi and National Park were closed down two years ago, Ohakune remained the only NZ Post/PostBank branch to service a hinterland area of several hundred square kilometres on the North Island's central plateau with a population of about 8,000 in a mix of rural and urban communities. Ohakune thus became the only accessible venue from which pensioners, sickness beneficiaries, the unemployed and all other individuals and families who are either wholly or partially dependent on the Department of Social Welfare, could obtain their pensions, benefit payments etc. Without any public transport servicing the Waimarino/ South Ruapehu area this single PostBank facility at Ohakune was inconvenient enough for people living in Raetihi, Rangataua, Karioi, Kakatahi,

Pipiriki, Horopito, Erua, National Park and everywhere in between but with the closing of the PostBank branch in Ohakune the effects will be devastating. In an area whose roads are sometimes closed by ice and snow during the winter months, access to the PostBank branches in Waiouru or T aumarunui could be severely curtailed. I would venture to suggest that this latest ANZ / PostBank decision and the way it was done will see a widespread resentment against PostBank and a wholesale transfer of customer accounts from PostBank to other banking organisations.

Dennis

Beytagh