Hampshire villagers sign petition over undelivered mail

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Hundreds of Hampshire villagers sign petition over undelivered mail

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MORE than 400 people in a Hampshire village have signed a petition demanding a return to the days of undelivered mail being left at the local post office.

Royal Mail has started taking parcels and signed-for items back to the main sorting office in Winchester instead of leaving them at South Wonston Stores and Post Office to be collected.

Post office chiefs said this brings the service in line with other areas and helps keep track of items.

But villagers face a 12-mile round trip to Winnall sorting office to pick-up undelivered parcels instead of a short stroll to their local post office in Downs Road.

Ron Chamberlain, sub-postmaster at South Wonston, said the changes would cause “considerable inconvenience” and meant loss of income for the post office, due to reduced footfall. Some other village post offices have also been hit.

Michelle Qassim, sub-postmaster at King's Somborne, said locals now faced a 20-mile round trip to Winnall sorting office.

She said: “It has had a significant impact on the local community, especially the elderly who don't have cars. There is only one bus every two hours to Winchester bus station and then they have to get a connecting bus to Winnall.

“Nobody is happy about it and the postmen are getting a lot of flack for it as well.”

The changes come as Royal Mail has announced plans to leave undelivered mail with neighbours - something it was previously banned from doing.

Winchester and Chandler's Ford MP, Steve Brine , called for a rethink.

“Making my constituents trek all the way into an already congested Winnall is neither helpful nor progress.”

A Royal Mail spokesman said people can request to have mail re-delivered to their home address free of charge or collect the item from their nearest post office for £1.50.

He said: “We have made changes to the unofficial practice of leaving items of mail in a local South Wonston post office to be collected by customers who were out at the time of delivery.

“This is to ensure that we provide the same service to all our customers and to ensure the increasing amount of tracked items provide the same audit trail the sender has opted for.”