Under recent changes, some post offices are closing, others are cutting their hours and some are being replaced by outreach services.

No one seems to know exactly what is going on and I think this is a bizarre time to have adverts on the radio advertising the value of local post offices.

People already know their worth.

It must get very confusing about where to go to post parcels – and it's not only postage services that post offices offer in small communities.

As many local pubs offer a place to catch up and get to know people, so post offices offer a chance to catch up and they also offer a friendly face for people who may be on their own or see few other friendly faces.

My grandmother lives in the village of Rotherfield in Kent, and although the last time I went into the post office there must have been about 15 years ago, I still remember what the postmaster looks like because of the friendly relationship he has with my grandmother.

When I stayed with her, we would go to the post office together, and she would get her pension or whatever – but she would also have a good chat with an old friend.

I am sure she is not on her own in believing that the post office gives her a place to visit someone she can have a good chat with when she's on her rounds of the few shops that are left in her village.

I'm sure that the people operating outreach services a couple of hours a week are friendly.

But that is not the only thing that community spirit is about.