Post Office would 'charge chatterers'

Post Offices around the country are under review

A senior Post Office official has said it would charge people for socialising in the queue, if it could find a way to do it.

The remark has highlighted the crisis that is hitting small post offices in Devon.

Thousands of people have appealed against the proposal to close the post offices at Pilton and Newport, near Barnstaple as part a cost-cutting review of post office services nationwide.

And in an extraordinary comment, Richard Smith, head of Post Office external relations for the South West, said that chatting in the queue is a social benefit the post office would charge for if it could.

He said: "If it's a social event and we could send the invoice somewhere and somebody could pay us for it, then perhaps we could keep more post offices open.

"It's not being facetious. It is reality, which is that we have got to run a business.

Without being nice to your customers you cannot expect them to support you Photographer Mike Southon

"We have got more post offices than any other European country and at present the urban network is under strain."

Photographer Mike Southon, outside the post office at Newport, said: "There's always a queue in front of me.

"I think most businessmen would like to charge for the social side of it.

"But without being nice to your customers you cannot expect them to support you."

Managers have begun examining the appeals against closing Newport and Pilton post offices, but it has become clear that they are in vain.

The Post Office says it wants customers to use the central post office instead to make it financially viable.

It has also said that it will not let other shops take on the franchise once Pilton and Newport offices shut down.