An Post has been struggling to find a new contractor in the area, said its spokesperson on Monday. “Even finding a suitable premises has been a huge issue.”
The Spar on the Triangle in the centre of Ranelagh was packed on Monday afternoon.
Two men sat on chairs in the middle of the shop, drinking take-away coffees, while a steady stream of people stepped around them, clutching packages and heading to the post office just past the long shelf stocked with coffee, sugar, flour and noodles.
Some half-dozen people of all ages queued for the An Post counter at the back of the Spar.
It’s been as busy as ever in there, said Mick Dunne, a Ranelagh local, later as he sat at his work desk in his living room. “My partner, she’s a jewellery designer. Couple of times a week she does online orders.”
She sells goods via online marketplaces like Vinted and Etsy, he said, while "Boys and Girls" by Blur played over the radio in the background. “So we’re there probably two or three times or more a week.”
Dunne runs the Ranelagh Mick Instagram page, which shares local news and information to more than 21,000 followers.
Lately, he has been fielding a lot of questions about the future of the An Post in Ranelagh, he says. “There’s a lot of younger people even messaging me about their parcels.”
With the local Spar set to close at the end of the month, the suburban town will also lose its post office, and that is going to leave a dent, he says. “There's a lot of people going to miss it.”
An Post has been struggling to find a new contractor in the Ranelagh area, said Angus Laverty, the post service’s public affairs manager, on Monday. “Even finding a suitable premises has been a huge issue.”
While An Post has been attempting to engage with other businesses, they are facing the very real prospect that Ranelagh will not have a post office, “albeit temporary”, by the end of September, he said.
Postal services in the area have already been diluted after the Rathmines post service was moved from its two-storey office to the back of a Centra in July, said Labour Councillor Fiona Connelly on Tuesday afternoon. “Ranelagh is going to put even more pressure on that if they can’t get another venue.”
The future of Ranelagh’s An Post branch was the subject of two motions at Dublin City Council’s South East Area Committee meeting on 14 September.
Connelly, the Labour councillor, was behind one. She asked for An Post to source an alternative location. Green Party Councillor Hazel Chu wanted An Post to meet with the committee.
Chu’s motion also requested a strategy for the postal service in the South East Area, and asked An Post to say if any more closures were planned.
Brian Hanney, the council's manager for the South East Inner City and Pembroke areas, said in his report in response to both motions, that their office had been in contact with An Post about the branch's closure.
They have been working to find an alternative and looking at every possible option, an An Post representative wrote to Hanney. “Quite difficult as you will understand given property values in this area and the pressure retailers are under to keep going.”
On Monday evening, there were five estate-agent signs advertising office spaces and retail premises for sale and to let outside buildings along the Ranelagh and Sandford Road which runs through the neighbourhood's centre.
They advertised office spaces to let for €89,450, an empty restaurant for €60,000, and a big commercial unit with two apartments for €2.6 million.
Two other signs informed passers-by of an agreed sale.
An Post has advertised the contract for Ranelagh “a number of times”, Laverty, An Post’s public affairs manager said on Monday.
SuperValu was one option, Mick Dunne said. “That would have been the most ideal place.”
Green Party Councillor Chu, at the South East Area Committee, pointed to Morton's, a long-running grocery shop on Dunville Avenue.
An Post have canvassed and engaged with local businesses, Laverty said. “But with no success.”
But, Chu pointed out, it’s not just retailers they should be looking at. “There are several locations in Ranelagh that have been left idle.”
There are two properties on the council’s derelict site register in Ranelagh, including 89 Ranelagh, a former opticians, according to images on Google Street View.
There is also the former Pinocchio restaurant within the Ranelagh Luas Station, Chu said. “That has been empty for quite a while.”
The space is owned by Transport Infrastructure Ireland, and locals have sought for it to be re-purposed as a community facility in recent years.
Dunne, the owner of the Ranelagh Mick Instagram page, launched a petition on 7 September for the TII-owned kiosk to fulfil the role of the post office. To date, it has 1,198 signatures.
A spokesperson for TII did not say, when asked on Monday whether they were considering any future uses for the property, or if they had spoken with Dublin City Council about any potential uses for it.
As Ranelagh faces the prospect of being without a post office indefinitely after September, locals will be forced to rely on other post offices in the general area, Laverty said. “At this stage, all we can promise is that we will continue ever possible effort to maintain the local service.”
But, bricks-and-mortar post offices have been winding down all over.
Within the South East Area alone, post offices in Sandymount, Donnybrook, Montrose, Ringsend and Ballsbridge have also closed up, said Labour Councillor Dermot Lacey at a meeting of the South East Area Committee in mid-September.
“This is another in a long line of withdrawal of public services by An Post,” he said.
In July, the neighbouring branch in Rathmines was relocated from its tall, two-storey art deco building on the top of the Upper Rathmines Road to Centra just 100 metres away.
Rathmines residents and local councillors have urged the An Post and Dublin City Council to ensure that the building is kept within public ownership.
An Post have agreed to give the council a one-year rolling contract for the former post office to be used for community purposes, said Laverty, An Post’s Public Affairs Manager. “An Post’s plan is still to offer the entire building for sale.”
All of this may put a lot of pressure on the Rathmines post office, Dunne said. “It’s quite small. Once you have everyone from Ranelagh going there. And even Donnybrook. A lot of people from Donnybrook use Ranelagh. So are they going to use Rathmines as well?”
“It’s going to be a mad influx,” he said. “It’s only when Rathmines show they can’t deal with this, that An Post’ll have to do something. They’ll have to act.”
It would use extra heat from the Poolbeg rubbish incinerator to warm water and send it through pipes underground, into buildings in the city, to keep homes and offices cosy without burning additional fossil fuels.
The council says it'll be open late this year, or early next.
A local GAA club works with children with additional needs, said one councillor. “They have children with needs that need to be met and the closer they can be dropped off to the pitch, the better.”
Grazing in public parks means other uses are being pushed out, and adding momentum to calls for an equine centre and stable club to properly support horse culture in the area.
