The post box outside Brightlingsea Spar store – the home of the town’s post office – is to be replaced by a new solar-powered box that will allow customers to send small parcels at any time of day.

The new boxes will allow customers to send small parcels by scanning a pre-paid label via a Royal Mail app. After a barcode on the label has been scanned, a drawer will open that can accommodate parcels about the size of a shoebox.

Around 3,500 of the new boxes, which will retain the traditional letter opeining, are being installed around the UK. They’re part of the business’s drive to expand its parcel services, which have been hit by cheaper parcel deliver services.