Today is the last day Australia Post is willing to operate a post office in Pennant Hills. Despite serious engagement from our community and from the Market Place, Australia Post has decided not to support any alternative options such as a Newsagent with integrated postal services (even Tibooburra has one of those!), or a smaller footprint mini-post office such as in Erina Fair. The option to keep the PO Boxes available where they currently are, or anywhere nearby is also not available. Thus, approximately 400+ PO Box holders have to find and hire an new one in either Thornleigh, West Pennant Hills or Cherrybrook, or even further afield. A large number of mainly elderly residents in Penno who still rely on cash transactions to pay their bills will see the very last official trading post that accepts cash bill payments will now need to travel significantly further to do so.
After the subsequent closure of ANZ Bank, Westpac bank, ComBank, and now Aus Post Post Shop, there are no financial service providers in Pennant Hills anymore.
Together with Julian Leeser MP and with Tina Brown – Community Independent for Berowra, and with active support from Hornsby Council, the Pennant Hills Civic Trust has been fighting hard for Australia Post to review its decision, but sadly, it seems impossible to beat an Excel table that says there are 2 POs in 2120 and that is just not on.
The Civic Trust is very sad to see the Penno Post Office close, and feels sympathetic for the staff that has been let go or redeployed somewhere else with a larger commute.
One bright spark though – with the arguably statistically significant 1.8 stars Google Reviews rating disappearing into the void, the average review rating for Penno CBD businesses will be seeing an amazing uplift.