Trading boost for poast offices (From Gazette Series)

Trading boost for poast offices

PROBLEMS at Thornbury post office are giving a major business boost to rural post offices in the immediate area.

The three nearest alternative post offices - at Alveston, Falfield and Tytherington - are all set to gain as car-owning townsfolk foresake the overloaded High Street office, put off not only by cramped and busy conditions but also by parking problems.

At Alveston sub-postmaster Julian Goulden said they had already noticed a significant increase in business,

"It has had a tremendous effect and it's been building up ever since Gillingstool post office closed," he said. "Very often one person will drive up from Thornbury in a car and bring two or three other people at the same time.

"We have plenty of parking here and, although we have had of queues, we move them quickly. We also recently spent £38,000 of our own money on major improvements including £12,000 on the post office station."

He said he felt sorry for people without transport who could not get out of Thornbury.

Simon Hyett at Falfield post office said: "Post office business has been amazing - probably double what we do over a normal Christmas. We have lot of easy parking but even that has been pretty congested at times. It's a double edge sword in a way. Thornbury people are coming here specifically to do post office business, not necessarily to use the shop, and if the place is too busy it tends to put off regular customers."

At Tytherington community shop and post office sub-postmaster Jeremy Evans said: "We are experiencing a noticeable increase in business and not just because of Christmas. We have had people re-registering with us for their pensions.

"We also have easy parking and given the situation in Thornbury it's quite understandable that people are driving out to us. The problems in Thornbury are regrettable, especially for people without transport, but on the other hand we're also delighted to be doing more business and we would certainly encourage people to visit us

"We need to keep rural post offices alive."