The Jablonec nad Nisou City Council will discuss the establishment of the Partner Plus Post Office in Kokonín on Thursday. Even if the council approves its establishment, the local residents will be without a post office over the summer. Due to the time it will take to finalise the contracts, it will not start work before 1 September, said Jana Fričová, a spokeswoman for the municipality. In Jablonec, which is the second largest town in the Liberec Region with nearly 46,000 inhabitants, the Czech Post plans to close two of its five branches at the end of the month.
In addition to the branch in Rychnovská Street in the Kokonín district, the post office in Vysoká Street in the Šumava housing estate will also close before the holidays. Residents there, as well as people from Vrkoslavice or neighbouring Maršovice, will have to go to the centre of Jablonec. Apart from the main post office in the centre, only the post offices in Rýnovice and Proseč, which are further away, will remain in the town. At the main branch in Liberecká Street, the Czech Post expects all counters to be occupied, and according to the mayor, Miloš Vele (ODS), people have the option of ordering their mail online and thus taking care of their business without waiting.
“With the development of the gradual digitalization of the state, data boxes and the influence of online communication, the demand for traditional postal services is naturally decreasing. Digitisation is needed, we are all calling for it, and it is clear that there will be turning points in the process, such as the closure of post office branches, which will be initially inconvenient,” Vele said. He considers especially unfortunate the way the public and also municipal representatives found out about the branch closures.
According to Vele, Jablonec had a quote prepared for the Partner Plus Post Office in Kokonin, with the aim of maintaining standard postal services for residents, such as receiving and dispensing parcels, money services, basic banking services and the sale of valuables and other services and goods. According to information from the Czech Post, the Kokonín branch handles an average of 111 transactions per day, so operating a single counter post office would cost the city CZK 1.641 million per year. If the councillors approve the plan, the town hall estimates that the operation will cost about half a million crowns by the end of the year.
The Czech Post plans to close 300 branches in the country from July to save money, leaving 2,900. The post office also argues that the interest in traditional postal services is declining and that by reducing the number of branches and laying off some employees it wants to mitigate its losses, which more than doubled to CZK 1.75 billion last year. In the Liberec region, 13 branches are expected to close, including six in Liberec. In addition, Czech Post plans to offer most of its own post office buildings for sale, and if the state organisation does not show interest in them, it will sell them in an electronic auction.
Source: CTK
