THERE are fears the so-called ‘temporary’ reduced opening hours of the Royal Mail delivery and parcels office in Petersfield are to be the new, permanent hours.

This means people will be hard pressed to collect parcels in the opening hours from the office on the right of the post office (pictured), a separate business to Royal Mail.

The hours were cut initially cut ‘temporarily’ to 8am to 10am on Tuesdays and Fridays; on Thursday from 8am to 10am and then 2.30pm to 5pm; on Saturdays from 8am to midday; and on Mondays from 7am to 9am. It was also closed Wednesdays and Sundays.

But now protesters claim these are to be the permanent opening times.

Town-centre businesses drop parcels and mail into the delivery office, as do residents, and when a parcel delivery to their home is missed, they have to go there to collect it.

It appears the opening-hours reduction is being kept in place as the office was hardly visited by customers last year – the parcels office was closed during the pandemic.

Now residents angry about the reduced hours are being urged to make their anger known to East Hampshire MP Damian Hinds.

One regular user of the parcels office said: “The decision to keep the reduced hours has been based on how much the Royal Mail delivery office was used last year. This was when people were mostly at home, so weren’t missing deliveries – and many businesses were closed so had fewer orders to post.

“There appears to be no easy way to complain about this to the Royal Mail, so it has been suggested we contact our MP.

“I would strongly recommend people do this, in particular those people who are not online.

“Please share this information with elderly friends and relatives who have no easy way to arrange parcel redelivery and need access to the delivery office.”

Mr Hinds can be emailed at [email protected] or called on 020 7219 7057.

The Post asked the Royal Mail for a comment on the reduced hours.