Athletes rewarded with Gold Postal boxes for winning at The Games 

For many years, Britons have strolled down to the street corner to post everything from post cards to tax returns in the familiar red Royal Mail post box.

But for the first time in 140 years, the colour of your local post box could be about to change - to a distinctly golden finish. Every time a British athlete wins a gold medal in the Olympics or Paralympics this summer, Royal Mail are to paint a post box in their home town gold to celebrate.

Team GB fans will hope the gold post boxes become a familiar sight around the country during The Games this summer. A dedicated team armed with brushes and tins of gold paint are going to be on standby during London 2012, dashing around the country to transform post boxes within days of a medal win.

If Britain wins a gold in a team event, the location chosen will be relevant to all the athletes - such as near to their training base. Most of the British cycling team train - hotly tipped for gold - train at the Velodrome in Clayton, Manchester, so expect to see a golden post box near there soon.

The first golden post box was unveiled outside Westminster Abbey in London. It will be the first time since 1874 that the Royal Mail has changed its iconic red post boxes. Many of Britain's first boxes were painted green in order to blend in with the countryside, but the bright red colour was introduced to make them more visible to the public. Royal Mail stressed that collections from the golden boxes will remain the same despite the new look and that they would in time return to the normal red colour.

Andrew Parmenter, Marketing Manager from The Mailing Room commented; ‘This is a fantastic reward to our British athletes this summer and will leave a lasting legacy. I am sure the general public will look forward to putting post in the newly decorated post boxes and maybe if a team event wins a gold medal the complete post office will be redecorated.’

‘As all the businesses in the UK, we at The Mailing Room will be cheering all the British athletes on to win Gold (postal boxes)!’

To find out more about The Mailing Room and the Royal Mail products offered, please visit www.themailingroom.com