Leanne Wild - a personal plea

Leanne Wild holds the door of Buersil Post Office open

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With the deadline for public opinion regarding post office closures fast approaching, Leanne Wild, Manageress of Buersil Post Office, which is earmarked for closure, has made a personal plea to local people to rally behind her fight to save not only her job, but also what she says is a fulcrum of the local community.

Miss Wild lives close to the post office and attended school, Balderstone, just around the corner. On leaving school she studied for a BTech National Diploma in Animal Management, but on leaving college could not find a job in a veterinary surgery as she desired and so, needing to work, she took what she thought would be a temporary job at Buersil Post Office. Almost five years later, and through good times and bad, including an armed robbery in 2005, Miss Wild has remained in the job she loves, not only for her own benefit, but also she says because many of the post office customers have been become like family to her.

Following the armed robbery she did think briefly of leaving, understandably after what must have been a terrifying ordeal, but she says the thought of letting her customers down motivated her to stay.

Miss Wild is puzzled why Buersil Post Office has been earmarked for closure explaining that in the past decade they have increased profits by 400% at a time when many other post offices are struggling to make a profit and some are losing money.

Customers talk highly of Miss Wild and say she often goes "the extra mile", above and beyond the call of duty, and some call into the shop on a regular basis as much to have a friendly chat as to buy products and use the services on offer. It is this sense of being an essential social meeting place for the local community that Miss Wild fears is being overlooked. She says without the post office some customers will be "utterly lost".

She says she accepts that the world changes and moves on, and that for some of the services the post office traditionally provided there are more efficient alternatives. But notwithstanding that, she explains that for some, particularly elderly and the poorer members of society, access to bank accounts and the internet is, even if possible, which it often isn't, an alien concept.

On a personal level this is the second blow Miss Wild has suffered recently, in January she was forced to move house after her previous home was marked for demolition as part of a regeneration project. After being forced to leave her home she is now facing the strong possibility of losing her job, and as she has only ever worked in the post office industry fears that she will not find it easy to find suitable alternative employment, and with a mortgage to pay and a wedding to her fiancé, Mike, to fund, she is beginning to show the signs of stress, though on the evidence of our interview with Miss Wild, the smile never leaves her face for long.

On Wednesday (8 July) Miss Wild is planning to attend the Rochdale Township Committee meeting at Rochdale Town Hall to lobby local councillors and try and enlist their support, she would like as many people as possible to join her.

The deadline for public consultation is 21 July and Miss Wild appealed to all who share her belief that Buersil Post Office should remain open to submit their views, she said: "Please help me and Buersil residents to keep our post office open; we are dealing with the government here and it is not going to be easy to get them to listen to us about the very human effect of the decisions they are taking, so the more people who submit their opinions the more they will understand the strength of feeling and perhaps rethink."