Great news from the Post Office in an email sent to me today – my local Post Office is now opening on a Sunday from 7am to 10pm! Not only that but the other six days of the week they’re open from 6am to 10pm as well.
As part of Post Office plans to modernise the network and extend opening hours Post Offices are announcing Sunday opening hours up and down the country. Whilst not all will have the normal Post Office counter manned during extended opening hours, many located in local shops will have an additional Post Office serving point at the retail counter.
I’m a bit ambivalent about the extended opening hours, it doesn’t mean that post will be collected at the weekends and sadly the Post Office with the extended opening hours isn’t the same Post Office that my ParcelForce deliveries end up in if I’m not at home to receive them.
However the plus side is that if there’s a Drop and Go service available at your local Post Office (and you also get Sunday opening hours), then you can despatch a ton of your weekend deliveries on a Sunday evening should you so choose and make Mondays a much less stressful day of packing.
If you want to find Post Office opening times near you they have a Branch Finder on the Post Office website.
18 Responses
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One of my local PO started opening to 7pm, 7 days a week.
They have just shut down the extended service and now close the standard 5pm. So that did not work.
For me the PO was to slow in getting into the collect locker business… now there are many other alternatives..!!
Suppose it depends on where you are whether it will work or not
Surely Sunday Opening restrictions apply for such as Supermarkets etc. These of course are 10 a.m. till 4 p.m. So if the PO Counter is in such a store they will have the same opening hours unless there is some arrangement so that the PO Counter is able to be separated from the rest of the store such as own external door and a door that can be locked to the rest of the store.
My Local PO is in a village shop & PO. I have some post to send so I shall be asking about Sunday Opening. My guess is that the answer will be No. But on Sunday the rest of the Village Shop is open for some of the day.
My local PO is in the co-op and they have had the additional counter staffed by the normal shop staff for a number of months and it is advertised as available whenever the shop is open. We have tried to use the counter a few times but unfortunately the service was very poor. The first time the manageress tried to redirect me to the main PO counter which was very busy and other times I have had to wait for a member of staff who is trained to become available from stacking shelves who when they arrive don’t know how to process the transaction. You leave the shop feeling that the whole thing was too much trouble for the staff!
According to my local Post Master there will be about 1600 Counters that will open, about 10% of the total. He will not be opening his counter on a Sunday.
Not certain if this is an experiment and if it succeeds there will be more in the future, or perhaps it is up to the Post Master, remember Sub Post Offices are Independent Businesses who are contracted to run a Post Office, if they take part.
Talking about Thatcham. Years ago I covered The South West and Thatcham was where the bloke who covered London and the South East lived(when he gave up he retrained as a School Teacher and last I heard of him he was Teaching in Cornwall). If I ran low(or out of stock) of some titles and I was close to Thatcham(say Oxford or Swindon) rather that come back down to Cornwall for stock I could raid his stock. So I got to know Thatcham quite well. But I must admit that I have not been to Thatcham for probably over10 years. Probably like so many other places it has sprouted numerous additional Housing Estates(as if it hadn’t enough already).
But in deepest rural Cornwall the Post Office I use is not one of them. No doubt the Post Master wants a day off.
Talking about Sunday Opening. It is not that long ago, certainly I can remember, when very little at all opened on a Sunday. There was quite a fight to get any Sunday Opening at all. The various Religious people wanted to Keep Sunday Special. They were totally against any form of Sunday Opening. Indeed they were arguing that the little that did open on a Sunday should shut.
Remember when you could not charge for admission to Sporting or Social Events. They got around this by Charging for the Programme and entry was by programme only. So you would approach the entry gate and just outside the gate was a table with a couple of bods selling programmes which you then waved at the bods on the gate to get in.
So if you think the Law is an ass now please remember what went before it.
A short while ago Tamebay reported on the New Travellling Post Offices. I wonder if these will be opening on a Sunday or will they be just Monday to Saturday?
Across Cornwall many Villages have lost their Post Offices. Also across Cornwall many Rural Bus Routes are either being withdrawn or are being severely reduced in numbers and frequency.
So it is possible, indeed likely that there are many Rural Communities where those without access to a Car now are being denied access to a Post Office. So I am hoping that the Powers that be within the Post Office are looking at the situation that now exists in Rural Britain.
After all there could very well be a justification for more of the Travelling Post Offices to serve the many Villages across the Country where Rural Post Offices have been closed.
It is likely that many Townies will not appreciate the problems being faced in Rural Britain. From my Village we only have one Bus Route. On that route there is access to Supermarkets but only at the ends of the route. So the various villages served either have no Shop or Post Office(like the Village where I live) or perhaps a Village Shop/Post Office.
So if you do not have access to a car you are tied to Bus Timetables. Remember the vast majority of the population do not drive. All youngsters who are aged below the Legal Driving Age, Many Housewives do not have access to a Car(Husband uses the family car to go to work so the wife has no car during the day-In a one car family-Which is true of many especially low income families). The Old and many disabled also have no access to a car.
So it is vital that there is a Rural Bus Route available. But in Cornwall many routes run during the day but the last bus of the day is late afternoon. So if you work say 9am to 5pm you may be able to get to work by bus but not home again, especially if for some reason you are delayed at work.
We require facilities to be available in Villages not concentrated in the Large Towns and its getting worse. Doctors Surgeries in the Villages are being closed and facilities concentrated miles away. If you are seriously ill and need a Home Visit the usual answer when you phone is ‘Its not possible. You will have to get to the Surgery’.
We need facilities and these are being denied to Rural Communities across the Country.
Guys,
There’s a whole internet out there where you are free to talk about whatever you like and be as rude as you like too
On Tamebay its appreciated in the topic remains ecommerce and online selling and good manners are expected too.
This is just another episode of really very childish bickering between two grown men who really ought to know better. Please stop.
dw