By BRIDGET COOK
AUSTRALIA Post has again rejected a plea for a post office at the Marriot Waters estate, despite a petition with more than 600 signatures calling for one.
Casey councillor Gary Rowe, local business owners and residents finalised a petition with 621 signatures this week calling for the post office to service the Lyndhurst community.
But a spokesperson told the News that Australia Post believed that the post offices in Cranbourne and Lynbrook adequately meet the needs of residents.
“We will continue to monitor the needs of the community going forward but at present do not have any plans to open an additional post office,” the spokesperson said.
Cr Rowe said the petition would still be presented to the State Government, along with a letter of support from the council highlighted the need for a post office.
“The Marriot Waters shopping centre is outside of the three kilometres boundary set by Australia Post from the nearest other post office,” he said.
“There are a number of barriers for Lyndhurst residents and the shopping centre owners to accessing the other post offices in the area.
“To access the Cranbourne one easily, people would need to go down Evans Roads which is uncompleted.
“The Lynbrook one is too far down the South Gippsland Highway.
“The one at Thompson Parkway requires people to go down Thompsons Road, which experiences a lot of traffic congestion during the day with school traffic, work traffic and the railway crossing.”
Cr Rowe said the area was only going to develop more, so now was the time to bring a post office to the area.
“You look out to the road and there’s residential development to the south, and industrial development in the area as well.
“This area deserves access to all postal services.”
The Australia Post spokesperson said they had to take a number of factors into account when determining locations of post offices.
“A number of factors are taken into consideration when determining whether a new post office is required in an area,” the spokesperson said.
“These include the location and number of existing outlets in the area, the size of the population and the volume of business that is likely to be undertaken across all of these outlets.
“Australia Post is required to operate in a manner consistent with sound commercial practice and needs to ensure the ongoing viability of existing outlets already in the area.”
