A concerned Royston woman has spoken out about staffing levels at a Royston post office after she saw just one member of staff dealing with a long line of customers, following the only other member of staff “walking out”.

The lady – who has lived in the town for two years – was in the High Street post office on Tuesday at about 2pm, where she joined a growing queue of around nine people wanting to get their cards and gifts sent off for Christmas.

She told the Crow: “There was an elderly gentleman, who looked to be in his 60s, dealing with packages.

“When it was my turn to go up, I asked him if he was having a hard time.

“He said ‘they have all walked out and now she’s gone and not coming back, and they’re not getting anyone else in’.”

“The employee said she was going because she couldn’t stand people looking at her, and couldn’t take the pressure.

“I was in the queue with about nine other people and by the time I left, the queue was coming out the door so there must’ve been at least 16 lining up by that point.

“I just felt sorry for the gentleman. To be left on his own at their busiest time of year, and he said he was agency staff. So where are all their staff?

“There are four tills, but only one was manned – the poor chap must’ve been exhausted. Everyone was quite upset about the whole thing.

“Royston is an expanding town, and we don’t have the amenities as it is. When I went to Mill Road Post Office before this one, there was only one person on there and that had about 10 people queueing.”

When the Crow contacted the High Street branch on Wednesday, an employee who had travelled from far afield, said: “I have no idea what’s happening, and I have travelled two hours to be here.

“I haven’t had a chance to find out what’s going on, we’re just serving customers. I know they have got problems with staffing. It’s not good is it?”

A Post Office spokeswoman said: “We would like to apologise to customers for any delays experienced in branch due to staff shortages at Royston Post Office earlier this week. This has now been resolved.”