£17 for a second class stamp; you must be joking!
Actually it’s not the purchaser who pays that much; it’s us, the taxpayer. Seventeen pounds is the government subsidy paid to Post Office Limited (POL) for a single transaction at its least efficient outlets. Overall POL loses £4M of our money every week. Since the turn of the century, the number of post office customers has dropped by 16% as many of its cherished services can be accessed more cheaply and more conveniently elsewhere. This is why government, through its snappily named Department for Business, Enterprise & Regulatory Reform, instructed POL to conduct a thorough national review of post office services.
The existing network of post offices evolved randomly through history. By contrast the new network is intended to allow a large majority of people to reach a post office that is reasonably accessible and close to their homes.  Reasonably accessible implies that in urban areas 95% of people will have a post office within a mile of their home and in rural areas within three miles.  POL has made it very clear that should population changes leave a large number of people no longer within easy reach of a post office then it will open a new branch to help them.
In Cumbria thirty-five post offices have been earmarked for closure, of which eight are in Copeland and four within the distribution area of Egremont Today: those at Beckermet, Bigrigg, Gosforth and Moor Row. The consultation period extends until late May, but this is not a consultation on whether you like what is being proposed but merely on whether the proposals will leave post offices too far away.
When the bill went through Parliament, the opposition lobby was bolstered by a handful of Labour members, their political future a speck in the rear view mirror, who must have hoped to garner a few votes. Being populist is easy; explaining and supporting change is more difficult.
The loss of a post office is a blow to a community as in different ways are the closures of a library, shop, pub, school, church or club. In advance of the post office review I have spent a year meeting community groups across the county seeing how they have come to terms with losses such as these.  Their example has convinced me that where a few people have the will a community can come together and achieve alternative ways of getting a service. Up and down the country post offices have been relocated in pubs, garages and newsagents a clever bit of lateral thinking! There are already mobile services operating in different parts of the country.
Why not let them know what you want at the contact points below:

Network Change Programme Office
Post Office Ltd,
Freepost, Network Change
Email: network.change@postoffice.co.uk
Customer Helpline on: 08457 22 33 44

National Consultation Team
Post Office Ltd
Freepost Consultation Team (no stamp is required)
The Editor will welcome letters on this subject.