Special delivery

For once, however, its plans to extend the opening hours of its delivery offices across the country are a red-letter day that merit the stamp of public approval.

As internet shopping continues to expand, it is inevitable that the postal industry will have to

handle more parcels in the future – this is one of the country's few growth industries.

Yet the one drawback was the limited opening hours of delivery offices which were proving to be particularly restrictive for people with full-time jobs.

It is to the Royal Mail's credit that it has decided to extend these opening times at a time when most other public services are having to scale back services because of the financial squeeze. As such, it can only be hoped that this is the beginning of a new, and long-overdue, era of customer-friendly postal services.