Rural French condemn surprise removal of village postboxes

Times

5 days ago

The 520 inhabitants of Balizac in southwest France discovered that their postbox had been taken out of use when it was taped over. On the other side of France, in the northeast, the 70 residents of Altenbach realised they were going to suffer the same fate when La Poste pinned a note to the village hall noticeboard.
The state-controlled postal service said that under a policy to 'rationalise costs', locals would have to post their letters in the neighbouring village. Within days, Altenbach's yellow postbox had been removed from the wall on which it had been fixed for as long as anyone could remember.
It has been the same story all over France. La Poste explains that in the era of the internet, and with only six billion letters sent last year — ­compared with 18 billion in 2008 — many postboxes are redundant. Of the 120,000 boxes still in use, 49 per cent get fewer than two letters a day.
Post office managers say ­upkeep is expensive and vandalism frequent. They point out that they still run a six-day-a-week collection service, but that this means sending postal workers to empty boxes, wasting time and money.
They have declined to say how many boxes will be removed, but have suggested that those getting fewer than five letters a day may be under threat. The aim is to have one postbox for every 1,000 people.
Although the first French postboxes were distinctly upper class and urban in the 17th century, when Parisian aristocrats sent domestic staff to put letters in them, they spread to the countryside after the 1789 revolution.
By the end of the 19th century, there were 50,000 boxes around France. From 1940 to 1961 they were dark or navy blue, and they were painted yellow from 1962.
Their disappearance is causing ­anger and incomprehension in rural communities, where the trend is seen as a sign of the state's disinterest.
In Altenbach, where officials ­explained that on average only one letter a day was sent, villagers pointed out that they would now have to drive to Goldbach, two miles away, simply to post a letter.
Hélène Sigrist, a resident, told Radio France, the state radio, that the loss of the postbox was part of wider cuts to local infrastructure that she said 'used to make senior citizens feel ­respected'.
Nathalie Duluc, the mayor of ­Balizac, was also irritated by the ­taping up of her village box, ­particularly because she had been given no warning.
'How can you behave like that? There was no call, no email — ­nothing except the scorn to which rural mayors are accustomed, alas,' she said. 'Once again, we have been placed in an untenable position because inhabitants complain to us.'
The row comes at a time of rural anger over what many communities see as their abandonment by a traditionally ­interventionist state apparatus. Local schools, police stations, doctors' ­surgeries and post offices have all been shutting down in recent years.
In the Beauvais area north of Paris, the disappearance of village postboxes was the final straw for Caroline Cayeux, the council chairwoman. She denounced what she called an 'incomprehensible and totally ­unacceptable decision … that will ­deprive villages of an emblematic public service and drive them deeper into isolation'.
Cayeux said many locals 'do not master the internet' and insisted elderly people had a 'fundamental right to put their mail in a postbox'.