Save the Post Office Campaign
This may be old news now, but it certainly worth mentioning here as a superb example of a Community working together. It came to the Parish Council's attention early in 2003 that a review of Urban Post Office Branches was planned by Post Office Ltd.. Due to the fact that Gurnard was considered by most people to be Rural, no alarm bells rang! However, Post Office Ltd. decided to lump Gurnard in with the Cowes Sprawl, which classed it as Urban and so its future was threatened. The Parish Council held a specially extended meeting, and a working party of residents and Parish Councillors was formed to urgently mount a campaign. A march to embarrass Post Office Ltd. was planned, aimed at flooding the Cowes Branch with Gurnard customers, thereby demonstrating the consequences of closing the Gurnard Branch. Many letters were also written and Post Office Ltd. eventually bowed to public pressure and withdrew its immediate plans to close the Branch. However, the message from Post Office Ltd. at that time was "use it or lose it".
Since then, the Postmistress has resigned her position and so the challenge became finding a new partner to work with the Post Office as replacement. This has proved very difficult, and in March 2005 the Branch was forced to close. There was interest in running the Branch, both at the original venue and at 2 others but none came to fruition.
Post Office Ltd. gave it a year, but the closure in the original premises has now become permanent. The premises has now been sold, and a "Two Fishes Delicatessen" opened on 29th April 2006, which has subsequently been renamed "Ratsey's Larder".
