A POSTMASTER is angry the BBC has asked him to advertise its programme shortly after losing him trade by stopping him issuing TV licences.

Peter Stockdale, who runs Hunton post office, near Leyburn, has been asked to advertise the TV show Antiques Roadshow.

He was sent a poster by the TV broadcaster to put into his window advertising the coming of the show to the Bowes Museum, near Barnard Castle.

The move comes just months after the BBC took away the Post Office’s right to issue TV licences and so losing Mr Stockdale money.

He said he was infuriated that the BBC had asked him for a favour, after its actions had lost his business one of its key services and a lot of customers.

He said: "They are just looking for free advertising.

"Why should they expect me to do something for them when they wouldn't do something for me?"

A small village in the Yorkshire Dales, Hunton, has a large elderly population, many of whom are now having to travel six miles to pay their TV licence.

They now have to head to the PayPoint terminal in Catterick Garrison, the nearest place in the area where viewers can pay by cash, rather than by direct debit or on the internet.

Mr Stockdale is also angry that the BBC expects him to put something in his window for free.

He added: "If a business, which is what the BBC is at the end of the day, wants to advertise in the window, then they have to donate some money into our box, which we collect for the Great North Air Ambulance.

"They will spend millions on the likes of Jonathan Ross, but then will do something insulting like this on the cheap to save a bit of cash, with nothing more than a would you be so kind?"

The BBC were approached for a comment but failed to reply by the time The Northern Echo went to press.

A Post Office spokesman said that postmasters are franchisees and so own the business and it is a matter for them what they choose to display in their retail premises.