Retailer Michael Carnall, owner of The Manor Village Stores & Post Office in Nottinghamshire, has expressed concerns over the collection of his outreach post by the Royal Mail.

Carnall runs eight Post Office outreach services in Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire, which sees him provide a mobile post office service to customers who don’t have access to a store nearby. He told Better Retailing: “Our last collection time is 4:20pm, which is before we return from our outreaches, so we are coming back from providing a service with stacks of mail. I have been raising this issue for over two years.

“One of the drop-offs goes to an adjacent village to mine, and I don’t believe it would take too much planning to redirect the van from that village to mine. In my view, there needs to be a proactive solution.

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When contacted by Better Retailing, Peter Hall, head of policy at the National Federation of SubPostmasters (NFSP), claimed this was not a widespread issue among outreach service providers.

“The NFSP wasn’t previously aware of the situation, but we have now spoken to him,” he said. “Based on what Michael has told us, there appears to be an achievable solution to the problem.

A Post Office spokesperson said: “We understand the postmaster’s concerns and know he works very hard to offer the best possible service to customers visiting the outreach services he operates.

“We will be liaising with Royal Mail regarding collection times.”