Village church helps keep post moving

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ROYAL Mail helped deliver post to villagers stranded by snow by setting up an emergency pick-up centre in a church.

Postmen were unable to deliver to homes in Brackenfield, near Alfreton, because of heavy snow and ice blocking the streets.

So church warden Nigel Rogers drove to the delivery office in Alfreton and suggested they bring all of the post to Holy Trinity Church.

Villagers were then able to collect their post from the church during last week's bad weather.


An estimated 90 per cent of them used the service.

Mr Rogers and Royal Mail staff organised hot drinks for those coming to collect letters and parcels.

They could pick up their post by showing identification to Royal Mail manager Ian Nightingale and postwoman Lisa Weightman.

Jane Thomas, from Royal Mail, said: "This example shows the lengths people will go to in difficult times, like we saw last week, to keep services running."

The Royal Mail yesterday said it was investing £20 million nationally in measures to deal with the most severe weather in 30 years. It said staff in Derbyshire had been working hard to get through the backlog of post.

Mark Woodward, manager at the Derby mail centre, in Midland Road, said there were still a "small number" of rural addresses which postmen could not reach.

But he said: "Any delay in mail caused by the bad weather has been reduced. We have pulled out all the stops to get the mail delivered to our customers."

He said the volume of mail they were handling changed "every hour".

The Royal Mail has put on extra flights to transport mail as well as more vehicles and trains as part of its "robust" Christmas plan.

Yesterday was its busiest day of the year, handling 130 million items.

Nationally, it has taken on 500 extra HGV drivers – out of a total of 3,000 more staff – and 250 more large lorries, although it could give no figures for Derbyshire.

Mr Woodward said: "Nothing is more important to us than getting the mail out to customers. We will do everything we can to achieve this.

"As we always do at this time of year, irrespective of the weather, we are advising customers to post and order as early as possible."

Derbyshire is set to experience another icy blast this week, which could affect commuters on Friday morning.

The Met Office said temperatures will drop to -7C overnight on Thursday. More snow is also predicted for the county.

Weatherman John Hammond said: "There will be a band of rain from the north on Thursday with cold Arctic air behind it, turning to sleet or snow. It will freeze – so ice will be a potential hazard on Friday morning."

[Lounge Lizard]

Villagers were then able to collect their post from the church during last week's bad weather.
An estimated 90 per cent of them used the service.
Mr Rogers and Royal Mail staff organised hot drinks for those coming to collect letters and parcels.

What a brilliant idea, and why just for bad weather ? I'm sure I could organise hot drinks instead of trudging round hundreds of houses and my knees and back wouldn't be so knackered