"We try to help everybody"

Here, in the final section of my three-part interview with Colin, he talks about the Post Office's lack of feedback and their arguments for closing his premises down; the number of small businesses that benefit from his office and also the possibility of a bus trip to Westminster which will give Llantrisant people the opportunity of meeting and expressing their views about closure to Kim Howells MP.

Do you think that the people who will be taking the ultimate decision are listening to what has been said, reading all the letters that have been written?

Well, we've had no feedback from them (the Post Office) whatsoever. A lot of letters have gone in which I haven't seen copies of as well.

I've been told they will publish the results on the Web when the final decisions are made and that they will quote the number of responses they've physically had on there too.

How do you feel about the fact that there's been no feedback from the Post Office?

I can understand, to a point, why they're keeping themselves to themselves. Obviously, in an open Government, we would like some sort of feedback, but I think they're keeping things tight to their chest so they can make their own decision.

I should add at this point that we've had very good support from Postwatch, in particular Sally Thomas. Although they're an independent body that can't have any final say in the Post Office's decison, they can make sure that any letters that have gone in have been looked at. They have a sway in what the Post Office can do but it's the Post Office that will have the very final decision.

What do you think of the Post Office's arguments for closing offices like yours down?

I've been told that I haven't a problem with footfall so I must class myself as being viable. All post offices across the UK have seen a downturn in people numbers visiting purely because of the way times have changed and the Government have taken more and more work from us.

However, the Post Office, in fairness, have teamed up with the Bank of Ireland and are pushing more and more products on us but whether these products are the right ones, well, they're not counter-based, they're call centre-based.

Having said that they have made big in-roads into things like car and life insurance.

How many people use your post office?

On average, about 500 a week.

Worse-case scenario, they close the post office down - what will the affect be on you and your wife, Lynne?

Since I took voluntary redundancy from my previous job (an Officer in the Merchant Navy) we've always fancied running a post office, we've been here 15-and-a-half years now.

I've always enjoyed dealing with people. We see lots of problems we try to sort out - for example people will come to me and ask for forms, or how to fill them in. A lot of that would go if the post office closes because people won't know who to ask, a sense of trust built up over the years will be lost.

Trust in the community is very important isn't it?

Yes, because over the years we see the youngsters coming through. They're originally brought in with their parents and we see them grow up. Even when they go away and get married or find a new job, they still come back and it's nice to see how they get on.

Parents feel safe about letting their children come up here to do an errand. There's no way parents will let their kids wander down that busy road to Penygawsi or Talbot Green to get an electric token, buy a stamp or pay a bill for them. Here you have a relatively safe environment within the town that they can all access.

What will you do if, worse case scenario, the post office is forced to close?

At present we haven't given it any thought. If it does go there will be a redundancy package and sufficient work for the four weeks it will take to close it down. The shop itself will go too if the post office closes so that will be a double whammy for the town.

I think that a couple of months down the line we'd have to sit down and think: 'What do we do?'

What would be the knock-on effect of the post office shop closing?

Well we do sell a lot of things for local firms. We've just finished selling the local Llantrisant honey which is limited supply at Christmas. We sell cider for Gwynt-y-ddraig, which is a Church Village-based cider, in fact we've had people come all the way from Porthcawl to buy it, we sell a lot of their three best ciders at Christmas.

We're also agents for Genie computers, we do cartridge top-ups, usually back on the same day. We're an agent for Edwards coaches as well so there's lots of other little things that we're all interconnected with.

In addition we sell handmade greetings cards, Dean Powell's books on local history, too. One gentleman across the road put the whole of the Llantrisant festivals on DVDs and we've been selling those for him so we support as many local and small businesses as we can.

We're local, community-based and we try and help everybody.

What can the people of Llantrisant do between now and January 8th or 14th?

People can still support me by using me. There is also the possibility of a January trip to London to see Kim Howells at Westminster and maybe deposit something at Downing Street if security permits.

The other main thing to consider is, if we do win, to make sure that the people who have used me continue to do so. If they suddenly didn't then I could go naturally.