POST office services in a thriving town centre were last night criticised as “shockingly poor” by one of its business leaders.

Chris Storey, chairman of Sudbury’s chamber of commerce, said he had come to dread entering the town’s main post office because of the length of time it often took to get served.

Mr Storey told how on Monday he visited the post office on three occasions to find the queue “out to the door”.

He said: “On the third occasion I counted 18 separate people in the queue and only two counters open.

“With the closure of so many branch post offices around Suffolk the Sudbury post office remains one of the most important public service outlets in the area.

“It is also important for businesses that need to send urgent parcels or special delivery items.

“There are five counters and these should all be open when there is demand for the post offices services.

“Unfortunately this is not a one-off issue and I dread visiting Sudbury post office due to the regular delays that arise.

“The staff on the counter were doing their best.

“Closing local post offices and then providing a shockingly poor service to customers is no way to build a viable post office for the future.”

A spokesman for the Post Office said: “Customer service is obviously hugely important to us, and we are constantly looking at ways to improve it, and this includes looking at waiting times in branches, and we will do everything we can to keep those times down to a minimum.

“Post Offices can get very busy at peak times, with some transactions taking longer than others, but we can reassure Sudbury customers we are doing everything we possibly can, at all levels of the business, to help them.”