A number of Post Offices across the country have been forced to cut their opening hours with approximately one in five shops still remaining closed as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

In a freedom of information (FOI) query issued by the Mirror to the Post Office they found that 65 branches increased their hours, whilst another 328 cut them.

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A Post Office reply received through the FOI stated: “The number of branches (excluding directly managed post offices) that have reported being closed to the public between March 1, 2020 and June 30, 2021 for a period of one month or more was 1,183

“Of the 1,183, there are 260 which remain listed as closed as of June 30, 2021. Of the remaining 923 branches, there are 393 which have changed their opening hours from those of March 2020.”

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The Post Office spokesperson highlighted that the company understood how much “local communities rely on our services, particularly customers with vulnerabilities which is why we have opened dozens of new branches since lockdown restrictions eased, re-opened many Post Offices and will seek to re-open more that had to close when possible.”

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