AN POST will readvertise a contract for the operation of certain services on its behalf in the south Tipperary town of Bansha, the High Court has been told.
Last week the court refused to grant a local committee an injunction as part of its action aimed at preventing An Post from closing the town’s post office.
Members of the Save Bansha Post Office Committee sought the injunction restraining An Post from closing the post office on grounds including that such action would cause hardship to sick and elderly people in the locality. They also claimed An Post only gave one day’s notice of the closure.
Mr Justice Brian McGovern dismissed the application because the court could not grant mandatory injunctions forcing An Post to keep the post office open, but allowed the committee to serve notice of its proceedings on An Post.
When the matter returned before the High Court yesterday, Mr Justice Henry Abbott was told that An Post was prepared to readvertise an agency contract for the provision of certain services on its behalf in Bansha. The court heard that this contract would relate to social welfare payments only.
David Kennedy, for the committee, told the court the post office had operated from a petrol station in the town which was recently sold. Locals thought the new owners would also take over the post office. A notice advertising the tender for the provision of services was placed in the Bansha office for seven days and not the usual 52-day tender period.
The committee claimed this seven-day period “amounted to a blatant breach of the tender process” and that the tender was not advertised in the local press.
The committee brought proceedings aimed at securing orders from the High Court directing An Post to keep the post office open and to engage in a proper and adequate tender procedure for a contract to operate a post office at Bansha.
Mr Justice Abbott adjourned the proceedings to October when the new legal term gets under way.