Stoke:Mail deliveries suspended after postie attacked

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POSTAL deliveries have been suspended on three Stoke-on-Trent streets in just four months – after posties were attacked or threatened.

In the latest incident, a 48-year-old Royal Mail worker suffered minor injuries after being assaulted as he was doing his rounds in Birks Street, Stoke, on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, his colleague was verbally abused in St Ann's Walk, Hanley, last month and a third postie was threatened in Bucknall New Road, Hanley, in September.

Householders in Birks Street received a letter on Wednesday telling them deliveries had been suspended following a 'health and safety risk assessment'.

They are now having to make the two-mile round trip to the Leek Road sorting office to pick up their Christmas cards, parcels and letters between 9am and 5pm.

On the two other occasions, deliveries were stopped for a fortnight.

The letter, from delivery office manager Jagdeep Bhela, states: "Mail deliveries to your address will be suspended and your address will be classed as one which does not receive the normal daily delivery to the door for health and safety reasons.

"Before I can consider recommencing deliveries remedial actions would need to be taken, and a further risk assessment show that this has been successfully reduced to an acceptable level."

The move has left families in Birks Street frustrated.

Freda Smith, aged 61, said: "I feel sorry for the postman but the person responsible has now ruined it for the whole street.

"I can't keep going up the delivery office, and there are a lot of older people or those who don't drive that won't be able to get there at all.

"No one will get their Christmas post – there isn't much Christmas spirit here."

Geoffrey Yates, aged 63, said it was 'very inconvenient'. He added: "I was shocked to hear about the assault, we have lived here for 41 years and we have never had anything like this before. But I am disappointed Royal Mail has taken this action. There is no parking at the sorting office and you don't know if you have any post – it could be a wasted journey.

"We don't even know if the perpetrator of the assault lives in this street. We are not very happy about it, especially at Christmas."

Neighbour Robert Lear added: "I run a business and I have got to take time out of my day to go into Stoke to get my post, and there is no parking there. It's a pain."

Pamela Cliffe, of Bucknall New Road, was furious when she was forced to collect her mail from the sorting office for two weeks in September.

The 66-year-old said: "We weren't given a letter or anything, I could have missed a hospital appointment because I didn't receive the letter about it until after it had happened."

Maxine Penkethman, branch secretary of the Midland No 7 branch of the Commercial Workers' Union, said the organisation supported the action.

She said: "We take the health and safety of our members extremely seriously, as do Royal Mail. If there is any danger to our members, deliveries will be suspended until such time as it is safe."

Royal Mail spokeswoman Val Bodden said: "Following the incidents, we suspended deliveries to certain addresses.

"The police were closely involved. The safety of our people is of paramount importance to Royal Mail."

Police are now investing the attack in Birks Street, which happened just after 1pm.

A Staffordshire Police spokesman said: "We received a report of a 48-year-old man having been assaulted by another man in Birks Street. The man was not seriously injured. Our inquiries are continuing."