A POPULAR post office parrot is stepping down from his public perch after nearly eight years of singing football chants.

Coco, a red-tailed African grey, first shot to fame at Barrow Post Office, in the Ribble Valley, when he started chanting Ian Wright, Wright, Wright to amused customers when the former Arsenal and England goalscorer signed for the Clarets in 2000.

But the feathered football fanatic's crowning glory came during the World Cup when then found himself on primetime TV with his chirpy rendition of Sven Goran Eriksson and Come on England.

Since then Coco has been a major attraction at the Old Row store where he perches in the back room and entertains customers with his birdy songs.

Keen Burnley FC follower David Wilson, whose wife, Susan, runs the post office, acquired Coco five years ago and has been teaching him to talk and chant ever since.

His first word was Hello, but he soon graduated to the names of Burnley players, as well as Up the Clarets and Come on Burnley.

But now postmistress Susan, 41, has decided enough is enough after working a seven-day week since taking over the post office in 1995.

"I need a break. I've been working a seven-day week for a long time and the post office has been on the market for three years, but hasn't sold.

"I have three teenaged children and want to spend more time with them. The post office will revert back to a house after it closes in June.

"I'll miss a lot of people. Some of the customers have been great fun, but enough is enough. There's no way we will get rid of Coco, but he is certainly retiring from the limelight and, unless people can hear him from our garden, I suppose the show is over," she said.

David, 42, who works as a customer services officer at the Yorkshire Bank in Blackburn, said: "Coco has become quite a star and some of the customers have remarked that they will miss him, but he will still be around and is yet to sing his finest song!"

The race is now on to find a new post office in Barrow, after Susan and David shut up shop for the last time on June 11.