Royal Mail U-turn on Paralympics stamps

Britain's gold medallists at the Paralympic Games will be honoured with first class stamps and golden post boxes - like their Olympic counterparts - after a U-turn by Royal Mail.

The company had originally planned to make a series of six stamps, featuring every medallist at the Games, after the Paralympics finished on September 9.

But now a fresh stamp will be created during the Games for every ParalympicsGB individual or team gold medal.

It will be the first time that any host country has issued gold medal stamps for their Paralympic winners since the movement was founded.

Tim Hollingsworth, chief executive of the British Paralympic Association, said: "We are delighted that the offer has been increased to enable individual stamps to celebrate our athletes' achievements and thank Royal Mail for reconsidering this proposal.

"We hope that the whole nation will continue their support of British athletes and cheer us on to many gold medals."

Andrew Hammond, managing director of Royal Mail Stamps, said that the celebration of Britain's victorious Paralympians was the "right thing to do".

He said: "Following the great success of TeamGB at the Olympics, the popularity of Royal Mail's gold medal stamps and the way in which our gold post boxes have captured the public imagination, we have decided to commemorate ParalympicsGB's achievements in the same way."

At the Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games, ParalympicsGB won 42 gold medals.

Mr Hammond said that the decision represented the "greatest logistical challenge in stamps production undertaken by any postal administration".

"Just as our Olympians outperformed expectations, we are confident that our Paralympians will also outperform.

"That would see us issuing many more individual stamps than the 29 printed over the London 2012 Olympics fortnight."