A plea to restore lost access to post boxes
POST boxes and Post Shops are, regrettably, becoming an endangered species in pretty well all parts of New Zealand.
More Dunedin Post Shops are likely to go soon, making life harder for those in North and South Dunedin — remember the days when the postal service was indeed a service, not a cash cow ($6 million profit after tax in the second half of last year) for the government?
The two post boxes beside North Ground, one on Cumberland St and one on Great King Street are still there, though, unless NZ Post has removed them in the last few days.
It’s unusual to have two post boxes only a block apart, and within view of each other, but these ones are (or, rather, were) special.
Until recently each — standing at the edge of the footpath, slots facing the road — had ‘‘No Parking’’ spaces marked on the roads beside them.
That meant that drivers heading north or south on the oneway streets could pull in, post their letters by reaching through the car window, and pull out again. A helpful and efficient setup.
But roads change. The concrete slabs of the new cycleway along the east side of Great King St prevent cars getting near the post box there.
And on the other side of North Ground, though the yellow dashes at the edge of the roadway are still partly visible at the edge of the new seal that’s been laid, those repainting the markings of the parking spaces down the west side of Cumberland St have disregarded the post box and the yellow markings, and marked out a parking space by the post box.It’s had a car in it every time Civis has wanted to post a letter there.
Both boxes can now only be used by pedestrians, and then only if they step off the footpath on to either the new parking space or the cycleway.
NZ Post has a policy of removing post boxes that aren’t used much, so it won’t be surprising if those two disappear soon. But that will mean the unnecessary loss of two very useful boxes.
Why are the NZ Transport Agency and NZ Post so stupid? Couldn’t either of them think about the function of those boxes? Or does NZ Post really want to run down — and then close completely — the postal letter service in this allegedly online age?
It would be easy to make both boxes functional again, even now.
For the box on Cumberland St all that’s needed is to change the white markings and repaint the yellow dotted line, recreating a stopping space in the long line of car parks. One is tempted to get paint and do it one’s self . . .
On Great King St there are parking spaces between the carriageway and the concrete slabs protecting the cycleway, extending almost as far as the post box.
All that would be needed to make the box useful again would be to mark off the last of those parks as a stopping zone for the box and move the box on to one of the concrete slabs beside it. If slots were put in both sides of the box, cyclists using the cycleway could post letters too.
Could the DCC (the Infrastructure Services and Networks Committee perhaps?) look after the interests of Dunedin citizens and stir up the NZTA and NZ Post to correct their botchup?
This week, Civis travelled south from Nelson. The traffic coming north seemed light — thank God.
Just before Kawatiri a ‘‘Remuera tractor’’ tore past, occupying most of the northbound lane, just before a blind corner. If a northbound vehicle had come round the corner, at least four travellers could have died.
Then, between Kawatiri and the Gowan, another car overtook at high speed, also filling the northbound lane, just before a dip, despite a double yellow line.
Little wonder that New Zealand’s road toll is horrific, and worsening.