Villagers up in arms over missing post box

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People in a Retford village have had to resort to handing their letters to a postie to ensure delivery after their post box vanished.

The post box was attached to the former village store in Sutton-cum-Lound but after the shop was converted to a house the box went too.

That means elderly residents have spent the last four months having to dish out their letters to a helpful postman who sends them on himself.

Now Sutton's parish council has demanded Royal Mail restore the vital service.

"The loss of Sutton cum Lound's village shop, which has now been converted into a residential property, also brought with it the loss of the post box that was situated here. The Parish Council has been trying to get this box re-instated in the close vicinity," said Sutton-cum-Lound Parish Council's Nigel Johnson.

"Early attempts were hampered as Royal Mail was adamant that the post box was still in action because it continued to be scanned as being collected.

"However once Royal Mail realised that the box had been removed and whoever was scanning it was doing so in Retford Delivery Office we were able to proceed."

Things began to look more optimistic when it was discovered that the box in question used to be a late collection box and the only other one in the village was a COD - collection on delivery - by the morning postman and is situated at Sutton Crossroads - too far for the elderly to walk to, the parish council says.

According to Mr Johnson, Royal Mail's complaints department contacted the Retford Delivery Office who eventually came back with a solution - they had re-designated the COD box to a late collection; but the missing box was not going to be replaced.


"Royal Mail apparently work to a rule that they will endeavour to place a post box within half a mile as the crow flies of all properties," Mr Johnson said.

"This rule is probably perfectly adequate in urban areas with networks of roads but is nonsensical in rural areas.

"Furthermore most rural villages have greater proportions of elderly residents who no longer drive and I can assure Royal Mail that these residents don't fly and even if they did they wouldn't fly straight like crows, they'd wobble.



"This rule also creates absurd situations such as the post box at Sutton Crossroads serving six properties and our remaining box at one end of the village serving over 300."

Sutton's postie has stepped up to help villagers during the disruption, Mr Johnson said.

"Our local postman has been brilliant telling local people to give post to him if they see him instead of walking the mile or so to the other end of the village where the remaining post box is," he said.

"I don't know whether this is just a local issue or endemic through Royal Mail but sadly reflects a negative management culture that spends its time making excuses or coming up with reasons not to do something instead of getting on with the job they're paid to do."

"I don't think it will surprise your readers but our remaining box is still a COD box and hasn't been redesignated which means the village has had no late collection since at least February."

Mail bosses have apologised to villagers - but the situation looks like it could rumble on.

A Royal Mail spokeswoman said: "When a post office closes and becomes a residential property, the owners are entitled to ask for the Royal Mail post box to be removed.

"The other box in Sutton-cum-Lound has now been designated as a late collection box for the village.

"The later collection service will start next week. We apologise for any inconvenience caused to customers."

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"Early attempts were hampered as Royal Mail was adamant that the post box was still in action because it continued to be scanned as being collected.

"However once Royal Mail realised that the box had been removed and whoever was scanning it was doing so in Retford Delivery Office we were able to proceed."