Rural services hit yet again

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 9, Issue 397, 30 July 1991, Page 1

Rural services hit yet again

The Waimarino is to lose yet another service with the closure of the Ohakune PostBank branch on 13 September. The New Zealand Post branch is to remain open at this stage, unlike services in Opunake and Patea which are also linked with PostBank What has angered Waimarino people almost as much as the news of the closure is the way it was announced. A press report in the Wanganui Chronicle was the first Waimarino people knew that PostBank was considering such a move, and Ohakune staff also found out the same way. PostBank management have said it was not their fault the staff were not notified and that it was NZ Post's responsibility. They have also said ANZ branches will offer services to PostBank clients but the nearest ANZ branch to the Waimarino is at Taihape, a 14o kilometre round trip. In a letter to customers Murray Watkins, chief manager, central zone, said he wanted to advise of a "development" in the company's banking services in Ohakune. He said the ANZ Banking Group, of which PostBank is a vital part, has recently reviewed the

eeonomies of maintaining "the high number of branch and agency service centres provided across the country." He said there were technological developments to offset the closure and that they allowed much greater freedom to conduct "the vast majority of banking business from a much greater distance than previously". A PostBank officer would be in attendance at Ohakune "some weeks prior" to its closure to advise how best any problems could be overcome. Ruapehu mayor Garrick Workman said he was negotiating with PostBank to set up an agency at the Ohakune service centre. He said there did not appear to be any precident but that he feels there is a difference in this case. Mr Workman said if Trustbank and the BNZ take on all PostBank's customers there may not be a problem but at this stage he did not know if they would. He said it was quite possible the two banks would not take on some customers and the danger then was that those people would travel out of the area and this would lead to them spending there money out of town.