Coalpit Heath Post Office leads the way

Coalpit Heath Post Office has become one of the first in Britain to move to a new way of working which will allow local people to access post office services outside traditional opening hours. 

The scheme, called Post Office Local, is designed to help local post offices which are combined with village stores by enabling postal services to be provided from a terminal behind the shop counter. This should provide extra business for both the shop and post office and extra convenience for local residents. The majority of the usual Post Office services are available from the shop counter terminal including posting letters and parcels, paying bills, collecting a pension, benefits or cash, picking up pre-ordered travel money and paying car tax.

Coalpit Heath sub post masters Sarah and Steve Davis recently met local MP Steve Webb, and local councillors Pat & Dave Hockey and Claire Young to show them the newly upgraded shop and to discuss the benefits of the scheme. Dave Hockey took advantage of the new service to get his car tax at the post office, a service not previously available in Coalpit Heath.

Welcoming the scheme, MP Steve Webb said: “For many years we have been fighting campaigns to save local post offices, so I am delighted that we are now in an era where the Government is investing in post offices instead of closing them down.”

Sub post master Sarah Davis said, “We’ve had a fantastic response from our customers. The flexibility of the scheme means we can provide Post Office services for many more hours. We now have people coming in at 7:30 on a Sunday morning to use the Post Office!”

Councillor Dave Hockey said, “Many local residents like myself will be very pleased at the extended availability of Post Office services. It is much easier to pop down the road rather than having to travel to do things like pay car tax, which I’ve just done.”

At Coalpit Heath Post Office, the services are now available from 7:30AM to 6:00PM on Monday to Friday, 7:30AM to 17:30PM on Saturday and 7:30AM to 12:00PM on Sunday.