Last month I mentioned that banking had arrived in Coltishall. Many Barclays and Alliance and Leicester customers are taking advantage of the new online facilities – if you like, think of us as a cash machine with a friendly face – and we don’t charge! The good news is that we will soon be able to offer the same service for Lloyds TSB customers – but no date for that yet. If you are with any other bank only certain limited accounts may be able to use the Post Office for banking. This is really down to the banks coming to an agreement with the Post Office – so feel free to let them know your opinion.

The other good news is that we can now accept debit cards, such as Switch, Connect and Electron, as payment for many transactions. Although some things are excluded, we can accept cards as payment for postage, car tax, TV licences and many utility bills.

As I write this, we are waiting to be deluged with the release of the Harry Potter book. Its Friday night and they are being shipped out tonight for delivery by post tomorrow morning – so watch out for low flying owls!!

Steve Haines Subpostmaster
Email: steve@unilake.co.uk

Editor: My book was delivered 10 o'clock Saturday morning by a big blond male owl, riding a Post Office bicycle.