The UK’s Royal Mail wants to set up as many as 50 drone routes over the next three years to make deliveries to remote communities. The plan, which requires approval from the Civil Aviation Authority, would see the service secure up to 200 of the autonomous devices from logistics drone company Windracers.

The Royal Mail said the first communities to benefit would be the Isles of Scilly (off the coast of Cornwall in south-west England) and the Scottish islands of Shetland, Orkney and the Hebrides.

Test flights started last year. In the most recent one, held in April, the service was able to use a UAV to deliver mail to Unst, Britain’s most northerly inhabited island, from Tingwall Airport on Shetland’s largest island. That’s a 50-mile flight each way.

The twin-engine drone used in the tests can carry a payload of up to 100 kg of mail and take two return flights each day. The Royal Mail said the device has a wingspan of 10 meters and can withstand difficult weather conditions with the help of its autopilot system. After the drone arrives at its destination, a postal worker will retrieve the mail and parcels and deliver them.

The Royal Mail claimed the drones would help it reduce carbon emissions and provide a more reliable delivery service to islands. It eventually hopes to have a fleet of more than 500 drones that will operate across the UK.

Strikes that spell misery for hundreds of thousands of people this week are set to worsen as Royal Mail staff threaten new wildcat stoppages which could delay millions of Christmas cards and presents.

A further 1,000 Royal Mail delivery staff could take unofficial industrial action as a separate five-day strike by 3,000 Crown post office workers starts on Monday, The Telegraph can reveal, at a time when the service is  creaking under the weight of festive demand.

It comes at the start of a week of strike chaos with conductors on rail network Southern set to stop trains south of London on Monday and Tuesday, and more stoppages by British Airways baggage handlers and cabin crew over the weekend frustrating many attempting to get home for Christmas.

Pressure is growing on Theresa May to bring forward Tuesday’s Cabinet meeting to discuss how to ease the crisis.

Senior Tory figures are calling on the Prime Minister to consider legislation to end the misery after Sir Patrick McLoughlin, a former transport secretary, described the action as “politically motivated”.

The Post Office has announced it will join the Government’s Help to Buy mortgage guarantee scheme, although it has not unveiled its rates.

The best Help to Buy rates, which are available to borrowers with a 5pc deposit, are currently HSBC’s two-year fix for 4.79pc and five-year fix for 4.99pc, both with a £99 fee.

The Post Office mortgages will be offered in partnership with Bank of Ireland UK. As well as joining the mortgage scheme, the Post Office said it is putting 100 mortage specialists in branches nationwide.

Around 4,000 staff working in 372 Crown offices – the large post offices in city centres – will strike next week over plans to turn one fifth of these into franchised outlets in supermarkets and newsagents.

The industrial action – a nationwide strike on Monday, with walkouts in some parts of Scotland on Tuesday – raises the prospect that the increasingly acrimonious dispute will rumble on until Christmas, the busiest time of year for the Post Office.

The Communication Workers Union (CWU), which represents Post Office staff, claims the franchise plans will lead to 1,500 job losses and longer queues for customers. The Post Office insists there will be no compulsory redundancies among staff who work at the affected branches, nor a reduction in service.

Dave Ward, deputy general secretary of the CWU, warned that the strike and other forms of industrial action could continue until Christmas.

A computer problem which left up to 3.3 million Post Office account holders unable to access their savings through pin pad machines has now been resolved, the company said.
All 11,820 branches remained open with customers still able to withdraw cash from any of the Post Office’s 2,000 ATMs, which were unaffected by the problem.

Its sometimes all too easy to forget amidst the upset caused when the network is reduced just how extensive the network still is and the important role it plays for many rural service recipients. Its also all too easy to dismiss the importance of services like this in the internet era, until we think through just how many individuals in communities suffer from digital exclusion and how many more just don’t get on with electronic banking. All of which reinforces the importance of making sure a Post Office near you doesn’t close soon.

It reveals “Thousands of post offices could share services in a mutual organisation to save themselves from going out of business, according to a government-sponsored review that has brought a transfer in ownership of the network one step closer.

“In the same way that farmers join co-operatives in order to share expensive services, post offices could opt in to a mutual umbrella organisation, it said.

“The move could prevent a further decline in the number of British post offices, which have already slumped from a high of 18,000 to 11,500 today. Many rural areas have already seen their post offices disappear, while long queues at city centre outlets often deter all but the hardiest from sending parcels or buying stamps.”

Ed Mayo, head of Cooperatives UK, has identified this as an option – there is still much water to flow under the “conceptual bridge” on the idea yet – but I have to admit that at this early stage the headline idea appeals to me.