The future of Port St Mary’s post office is uncertain, with the village’s commissioners set to hold an emergency meeting to discuss it.

We asked people whether they think having a brick and mortar post office is still important for a community these days.

Graham, 73 and Linda Ward, 69, Onchan, both think physical post offices are important.

Graham said: ’I think it’s relevant. Keep it, definitely.

He already thinks that their local Onchan post office is ’withdrawing their services bit by bit’, adding ’one of the problems is that you’re paying more for less.

’You don’t get Saturday deliveries, everything’s restricted and it’s hard to get stuff.’

’Email and the like have taken their toll on the postal services.’

Linda agrees that it would be a loss to the community if a post office disappeared, because people would miss ’Being able to collect pensions and things like that, older people particularly need to do that.’

Eric Smith, 81, Onchan, said that it’s ’a shame’ for Port St Mary to lose its post office.

Asked if he still thinks physical post offices are important in 2020 he told us: ’Every little village needs one, especially when you’re out in the sticks.’

Paula Noble, 72, also from Onchan, added: ’Especially if they start taking banks away, like the Peel Isle of Man Bank which is closing.

’People have got to have somewhere where they can go and get change and things.’

Talking about moving post offices into other shops, she said: ’So long as people can go somewhere and still get postal services, it still works - even if it’s in a SPAR shop - it’s still there’.

’It’s more economical as well’, Eric added.

Josh Quinn, 31, from Peel said that physical post offices ’Do have their uses, but I think it needs to be a multi-purpose building nowadays, because I don’t think there are as many people sending as many letters or as many parcels.

He continued: ’But hand on heart, I couldn’t honestly tell you what else the post office offers. I think the last time I was in there was for a licence for my vehicle.’

’So I think it does have its uses, but whether or not we need one in every quarter of the island, I don’t know. It can’t be a loss leader, can it?’

Siobhan Molloy, 44, Douglas, says that dedicated Post Offices are ’Absolutely useful’.

She explained: ’I was in the Governor’s Hill post office yesterday sending two huge parcels to Ireland.

’And it’s not only that I can send them, it’s the advice that they give - so they’ve said: "Look it’s way over 2kg, take it home and re-wrap it."

They’re so friendly. And the fact that it’s not in town means it’s much easier just to nip in and out.

Talking about the need for physical post offices in 2020, she said: ’We’ve proved that we can stop using them when we have to during lockdown, but the argument that "we stopped, and so we don’t need it" isn’t valid, because we stopped because we had to and actually we suffered because of it.’