Leitrim Post office set to move into Roscommon amid concerns from locals

Leitrim is set to lose a major post office as Carrick on Shannon post office moves from its site on Saint Georges terrace, where it has been for over half a century, to a new location about a Kilometre away at Glancy’s Supervalu in Cortober early next year. 

The move comes after the post master decided to retire and An Post advertised for a new business to take up the post office in the area but no suitable residence in the town was found.

The move has drawn criticism from local Politicans and Businesses who feel that the post office should remain in the town with letters from councillor Maeve Reynolds and TD Frankie Feighan along with business owners being sent to An Post regarding the move.  

“The location going so far outside of the town centre and across into another county, its loss will certainly be felt within the town … We would think that it was ill advised to move it from the current building and I don't know what effort was made to keep it in the current building,” says Finola Armstrong-McGuire, who owns a business in the town and is President of Carrick on Shannon chamber of commerce.

“We use it, retailers that do work online including myself would be in the post office, and you could put a note in the door that says ‘back in five minutes’ but when I put a note on the door to go across to the Supervalu building with a parcel you could be forty minutes walking.”

“We were certainly given the impression that this was not going to happen, that it was not on the radar. Locals felt that we should be at least questioning it and we certainly questioned it and emphasised that it was very central to our town and that was emphasised in council meetings as well but that seems to have been ignored,” says Armstrong-McGuire.

After the move a portion of the new site at Glancy’s Supervalu will be converted into a new purpose built post office while the building where the post office was previously will continue to be used as a delivery service point where people can pick up mail, according to Angus Laverty, spokesperson for An Post.

Residents can still have their mail delivered to the residence on Saint Georges terrace but all post office business such as getting stamps or social welfare services will need to be done at the new site.

“It has been talked about for quite a bit and we have advertised the vacant contract a number of times and canvased the local area to see if we could come up with another premises. I think in the end we have landed the best option which is a terrific space in Supervalu which will enable us to provide a really good post office with car parking and all the rest of it … I think when people see the new post office that will be provided, it will be one of the most impressive post offices of its kind in the country,” says Laverty.

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