Chamber Seeks to Delay Palm Beach Australia Post Office Closure

Angry Palm Beach business owners and local residents will rally together next week to oppose the announcement by Australia Post of the closure of the Palm Beach Post Office due as soon as the 26th of November.

Creek to Creek Chamber of Commerce President Darren Mackintosh said “ the local community today is shocked by the news and saddened that the Federal Government owned business could not even hold community consultations as to why this decision needed to be made”.

Mr Mackintosh said that he, along with hundreds of other Palm Beach Post Office Box holders collected their box on Monday morning this week, to find an unaddressed letter from Australia Post advising that the post office boxes will be relocated on the weekend of the 27th of November, and relocated to “Elanora Licensed Post Office”.

He said that much of the concerns of local businesses centre around their lack of belief that there has been a decline in customer numbers as quoted by Australia Post; and the short notice of the closure. Mr Mackintosh said that lining up for service was a regular occurrence at Palm Beach, and with even longer lines often at Elanora, he questions the ability of the new store to cope with the new overload of demand.

Why, so close to Christmas, would Australian Post make such a decision? said Mr Mackintosh.

The Chamber of Commerce and representatives of local business and residents however wish to seek positive talks with Australia Post. Rather than protest the closure, local representatives will seek to petition Australia Post to postpone the closure of Palm Beach for a period of six months, so that they can assist Australia Post in searching for alternatives such as possible franchising or sub-agency expressions of interest from the local community.

Mr Mackintosh said that the Post Office is the cornerstone of any business community, and we will fight to have this decision reviewed. The Palm Beach community is alive and strong, with many new businesses being attracted to the CBD in the past 12 months, and he said that “Palm Beach is a unique welcoming suburb, with much to offer including clean open beaches, straddled by two beautiful creeks, excellent access to the M1, with fantastic shopping, eateries, accommodation and real estate opportunities to name a few”. He said that the community is growing, and with more and more additional developments, services and facilities – that Australia Post could be swayed to change their decision”.

Local Residents and Business owners are invited to attend a public rally on Monday the 1st of November at 10.30am at 1045 Gold Coast Highway Palm Beach.