Christmas card takes 46 days to travel one mile

[TrueBlueTerrier]

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It should have been the simplest of holiday rituals. Old friends trading Christmas cards, wishing the other the very best for the festive season.

Instead, one card took 46 days to travel just over a mile, while the other ended up mangled in a Royal Mail sorting machine.

Gordon and Mavis Barson, of Priest Avenue, Gatley, were beginning to think they had been struck off Margaret Catley’s Christmas list, when her card failed to arrive.

But the card eventually arrived on January 26 – 46 days after being posted on December 11. To add insult to injury, the couple’s card to Margaret showed up at her house on Whitegates Road, Cheadle, torn in half.

Margaret, 75, said: “One half of the card arrived with an apologetic note from the Royal Mail saying it had got caught in a machine. I held on to it just in case the other half arrived, but it never did.” Gordon, 73, said: “I can’t believe Margaret’s card took 46 days, the whole thing is just a farce. What are the chances of both cards going wrong? There’s almost no point in sending them.” Last week the M.E.N. reported that a Christmas card posted in Bramhall, Stockport, took 35 days to move just one mile down the road to Cheadle Hulme. Cheadle MP Mark Hunter has called for an investigation by Royal Mail after receiving complaints from constituents in Gatley, Great Moor, Cheadle Hulme, Compstall and Bramhall.

Gordon, a retired engineer who takes a keen interest in local history, said: “In Victorian times the postman used to wait at Gatley station for the post to arrive from Manchester and then he would deliver it directly from the station to people’s doors. You apparently would have had it within the hour of its arrival in Gatley. Those days are long gone.”

Dave Kennedy, from the Communication Workers Union, said Christmas had been the first true test of the postal system since the closure of sorting offices in Bolton, Oldham and Stockport. He said: “When you look at what happened there is no doubt that Royal Mail failed that test. They had a disastrous December.”

A spokeswoman for Royal Mail said: “It is not true at all to suggest that changes to the Mail Centre network in the north west have had any impact on the Christmas operation. We apologise to any customers whose mail may have been delayed. All mail deliveries in the North West are now operating normally.”

[TrueBlueTerrier]

Bring back the Christmas smileys - stuff is still out there by the looks of it.

[POSTMAN]

[kingofmcr]

in victorian times ..probably around 30 to 40 letters arrived for the town ..easy to sort in the train and deliver ...

[Darren Bent]

I wonder would the system say 30 years ago will cope with stupid amount of mail we get these days. Probably better due to more trains and manpower and probably less managers.