Caistor Post Office continues with full service

The coronavirus pandemic has seen life change, but in Caistor one thing remains the same - the service provided by Martin and his team to both businesses and residents.

However, the post office staff are following government guidelines, with strict social distancing in place.

Martin said: “Life goes on and we have to find solutions to help people and keep the country going.

“Our customers have been really good - they are keeping to the restrictions we have in place of limiting the number of people in at any one time.

“Staff have been issued with sanitiser and gloves; we also make sure keypads, handrails and door handles are regularly sterilised.”

As well as traditional postal services, the Post Office is now in partnership with all the major banks to offer a range of banking services too, a n important role, especially with the current restriction to travel.

Post office opening hours have been adjusted slightly on a temporary basis too in a bid to help the town’s residents.

Weekday opening is 8am to 5pm, with the first half an hour for the elderly and vulnerable.

On Saturdays, the post office will close at 1pm.

Martin said: “These are only temporary changes and once this is all over we will go back to our usual hours.

“The closing times are after the posting times, so it will not affect anything in that way.”

The earlier closing times also gives Martin time to process the many parcels that continue to come through.

He said: “We are encouraging people to use the ‘Drop and Go’ service for parcels; that way people spend less time in the post office making it safer for everyone.

“We then set about processing the parcels when we are closed; that has worked really well.

“We have some customers who send multiple parcels and I know there has been some criticism of this lately, especially when people are Ebay sellers, but these people are self employed and it is important to support all businesses at this time and help the whole economy.

“Through keeping all our services running, we haven’t had to make any staff changes, which is good news.

“The Post Office is now putting something in place to help postmasters through this difficult period too, which is very kind of them.

“We need to support all our businesses - large and small - and help the economy for the benefit of all.

“This is our way of doing that.”