THE FIGHT for survival continues for the village post office in Cumnor as its postmaster and mistress call upon residents to help them stay in business.

The Post Office has stopped paying Sri and Kiruba Sathiapal a postmasters’ full-time wage as part of national changes to the service.

The couple, who have run the post office in High Street for seven years, are now being forced to rely on residents using their newsagents to keep the post office going.

Determined to keep the service running, the Sathiapals agreed to change the branch into a ‘Local Plus’ model, which scraps the designated post office counter, their dedicated postmaster’s salary and several post office services.

This is replaced with a service at the shop counter and the couple will have to rely on any commission from selling what Post Office services they can.

Mr Sathiapal said: “At the moment it is all change. It will probably take a bit of time to get used to it.

“Most of the services we are going to keep, but with those that we lose we will lose a chunk of our commission.

“Hopefully if people come into the shop we can survive, but if no one uses the shop in the future I do not know what will happen to the post office.

“The survival of the post office depends on the shop sales.”

The new model, rolled out on November 19, bars the couple from issuing travel insurance or handling parcels weighing over 2kg.

The couple said that they had relied on their Post Office salary to be in a position to run the newsagents.

Mrs Sathiapal added: “We had a lot of local support when they were thinking of closing the post office but a lot of people do not use the shop .”

A Post Offic spokesman said: “We believe the new contracts are a fair offer for postmasters. The new models offer them the potential to increase their post office and private retail business and reduce their operating costs. Our strategy is designed to improve the service we offer customers by extending opening hours and developing our range of products and services.

“Customers are reacting positively to the new operating models we are introducing, with 10 per cent visiting branches that have converted to the new models outside traditional opening hours.

“Where a branch converts to a local branch, they are able to offer products and services that account for well over 95 per cent of the transactions of any other post office .”

Last year Kidlington’s main post office moved into the Co-op, Burford’s branch relocated to a nearby newsagents and Witney’s central post office moved to WHSmith in the town centre.