Bircham: Is this just the initial blow for post offices

[TrueBlueTerrier]

http://www.lynnnews.co.uk/news/business ... _1_3463188" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

PEOPLE in Bircham face a 20-mile round trip to collect some items of undelivered mail in what looks set to be the first blow to post office services in the village and surrounding ones.

The delivery office side of Bircham Post Office is moving to Hunstanton, meaning items with a fee to pay will have to be collected from there.

Other undelivered items will continue to go back to Bircham Post Office while it remains open, but the building is up for sale.

Sub postmaster Philip Dennis, 63, and his wife Eileen, 62, want to retire and are now marketing the Church Lane post office as residential after failing to get a buyer for it as a business.

If a buyer comes forward it could spell the end not only of Bircham post office services, but the mobile services the couple run twice-weekly in Syderstone and West Newton and three times a week in Sedgeford.

Mrs Dennis said: “We tried for two-and-a-half years to sell it as a business but because of the planned changes to post office services it has made the business valueless.

“It is very, very sad. We have been here 14-and-a-half years and have tried to give good service to our customers. That is what is going to go but there is nothing we can do about it.”

A Royal Mail spokesman said: “We would always seek to keep Post Office services in Bircham and surrounding areas.”

The delivery office function will move to Hunstanton on Monday, February 6.

Colin Coe, Bircham Parish Council chairman, said: “It’s the thin edge of the wedge.”

Customers with PO Boxes or surcharges/Custom charges to pay will need to go to Hunstanton Delivery Office, which is open, 7am to 10am and 11am to 12.30pm Monday to Saturday, while Bircham is open four afternoons a week.

People may be able to avoid a trip to Hunstanton in some cases even if there is a fee to pay by paying online or affixing stamps to the card notifying of the undelivered mail and returning it.