Lizzy Yarnold post box: 'No legal action to be taken'

[TrueBlueTerrier]

Lizzy Yarnold post box: 'No legal action to be taken', says Royal Mail

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ROYAL Mail will not be taking legal action against vandals who daubed a West Kingsdown post box gold.

The crudely-painted box, on Hever Road, was targeted overnight on Wednesday.

Royal Mail has repeatedly refused to paint the box gold in honour of Lizzy Yarnold's Olympic win last week.

The company claims the move in 2012 to honour gold medallists was a one-off for the London Games.

A spokesman today told the Chronicle the incident would not be reported to police.

When asked if the box would be returned to its original colour of red, the spokesman said no further comment would be made and that.

Chronicle editor Gabriel Shepard said: “However well meaning, it’s unfortunate that someone has decided to take the matter into their own hands.

“Lizzy deserves a first class and permanent tribute to her success - not a botched job carried out in the dead of night.

“Our campaign urging Royal Mail to Paint It Gold For Lizzy continues to gather pace and we are close to getting 50,000 signatures.”

Help change the postal service's mind by signing up here and by tweeting @royalmail with the hashtag #PaintItGoldForLizzy

Despite more than 47,000 people signing up to urge Royal Mail to change its mind, the spokesman said no change would be made to its original statement.

“The UK hosted the Games and our athletes performed extraordinarily well. Because of our status as the host nation, Royal Mail chose to mark the achievement of our athletes through gold post boxes as well as stamps.

“For the Winter Olympics 2014, Royal Mail will not be creating gold postboxes but we are exploring other ways of marking the achievements of our athletes, including creating a special postmark.”

The company has been unable to elaborate on what other options are being explored.

A man who daubed a post box in Lymington in 2012 to honour Olympic champion Sir Ben Ainslie was held by police at the time for criminal damage.

Following a campaign and intervention from the quadruple Olympic-winning sailor himself, police later said they would be taking no further action after Royal Mail's complaint of "vandalism" was withdrawn.

[UnhappyGremlin]

Presumably because they don't have a clue who was responsible.

[Brain Fury]

It's not usually the victim's responsibility to catch the perpetrator of a crime. The article says that RM won't be reporting the incident to the police.

[UnhappyGremlin]

When I said 'they', I was in actual fact referring to the police.
And, whilst it says RM aren't reporting it, there is a good chance that it has been reported, and the police have pointed out it will be a fruitless exercise (like normal).
Plus, RM has already scored an own goal in terms of PR with this, and thus pursuing a legal angle would only serve to make them look even bigger twats than they currently do.

And as far as victims finding the perpetrator of crimes (and they always ask if you have an idea who), the police love it when they can be given a name.
It means they can get to the point of filing it 'unresolved' or 'unproven' sooner rather than later, and thus can get back to their donuts quicker.

P.S. We missed you.

[Lounge Lizard]

If the rozzers or Royal Mail were really interested there would surely be CCTV in that part of Sevenoaks that could well identify the criminals.
As it is though, other that it being a full sized post box rather than the smaller rural version, it just looks like many I regularly see covered in cow s**t splattered by speeding tractors.

[Brain Fury]

When I said 'they', I was in actual fact referring to the police.
And, whilst it says RM aren't reporting it, there is a good chance that it has been reported, and the police have pointed out it will be a fruitless exercise (like normal).
Plus, RM has already scored an own goal in terms of PR with this, and thus pursuing a legal angle would only serve to make them look even bigger twats than they currently do.

And as far as victims finding the perpetrator of crimes (and they always ask if you have an idea who), the police love it when they can be given a name.
It means they can get to the point of filing it 'unresolved' or 'unproven' sooner rather than later, and thus can get back to their donuts quicker.

P.S. We missed you.

A PR own goal? What by not being browbeaten in to painting it gold because a few idiots decided that actually getting a gold medal and all the attendant publicity isn't enough reward? They are the people who look like twats. Presumably we should be painting boxes gold for every Olympics, summer and winter from now on?

And it's just a matter of time before someone decides that it should also apply to gold medal winners at the World Championships and the European Championships and the Commonwealth Games and the World Tiddlywinks Championships and the Winner of X Factor and Strictly Come Dancing. The mistake RM made is by backing down on the original plan because someone decided that painting them red again after the 2012 Olympics would be a "PR own goal". I expect the public would and will get over it.

[UnhappyGremlin]

When I said 'they', I was in actual fact referring to the police.
And, whilst it says RM aren't reporting it, there is a good chance that it has been reported, and the police have pointed out it will be a fruitless exercise (like normal).
Plus, RM has already scored an own goal in terms of PR with this, and thus pursuing a legal angle would only serve to make them look even bigger twats than they currently do.

And as far as victims finding the perpetrator of crimes (and they always ask if you have an idea who), the police love it when they can be given a name.
It means they can get to the point of filing it 'unresolved' or 'unproven' sooner rather than later, and thus can get back to their donuts quicker.

P.S. We missed you.

A PR own goal? What by not being browbeaten in to painting it gold because a few idiots decided that actually getting a gold medal and all the attendant publicity isn't enough reward? They are the people who look like twats. Presumably we should be painting boxes gold for every Olympics, summer and winter from now on?

And it's just a matter of time before someone decides that it should also apply to gold medal winners at the World Championships and the European Championships and the Commonwealth Games and the World Tiddlywinks Championships and the Winner of X Factor and Strictly Come Dancing. The mistake RM made is by backing down on the original plan because someone decided that painting them red again after the 2012 Olympics would be a "PR own goal". I expect the public would and will get over it.

Like I said, we missed you.

[Brain Fury]

When I said 'they', I was in actual fact referring to the police.
And, whilst it says RM aren't reporting it, there is a good chance that it has been reported, and the police have pointed out it will be a fruitless exercise (like normal).
Plus, RM has already scored an own goal in terms of PR with this, and thus pursuing a legal angle would only serve to make them look even bigger twats than they currently do.

And as far as victims finding the perpetrator of crimes (and they always ask if you have an idea who), the police love it when they can be given a name.
It means they can get to the point of filing it 'unresolved' or 'unproven' sooner rather than later, and thus can get back to their donuts quicker.

P.S. We missed you.

A PR own goal? What by not being browbeaten in to painting it gold because a few idiots decided that actually getting a gold medal and all the attendant publicity isn't enough reward? They are the people who look like twats. Presumably we should be painting boxes gold for every Olympics, summer and winter from now on?

And it's just a matter of time before someone decides that it should also apply to gold medal winners at the World Championships and the European Championships and the Commonwealth Games and the World Tiddlywinks Championships and the Winner of X Factor and Strictly Come Dancing. The mistake RM made is by backing down on the original plan because someone decided that painting them red again after the 2012 Olympics would be a "PR own goal". I expect the public would and will get over it.

Like I said, we missed you.

How about giving the rest of us the opportunity to say the same to you (in a couple of years time)?

[clashcityrocker]

Presumably we should be painting boxes gold for every Olympics, summer and winter from now on?

Didn't anyone consider the consequences of starting the ridiculous post box painting idea?
They opened the can of worms. They shouldn't be surprised some people want to carry on the tradition.

The winner of a dressage gold medal gets a gold post box, the winner of the first gold on snow doesn't.
It hardly has the popular touch now does it.

[Pinky 1]

What about the silver and bronze medal winners ? Can they also have postboxes painted for them ?

I can understand Royal Mail's reasons for celebrating the home Olympics, and thought it was a good idea at the time.

I would suggest returning all mail boxes to their original colour at the start of the next Olympics

[UnhappyGremlin]

Presumably we should be painting boxes gold for every Olympics, summer and winter from now on?

Didn't anyone consider the consequences of starting the ridiculous post box painting idea?
They opened the can of worms. They shouldn't be surprised some people want to carry on the tradition.

The winner of a dressage gold medal gets a gold post box, the winner of the first gold on snow doesn't.
It hardly has the popular touch now does it.

Which Is why I said it was a PR own goal.
RM basically created the monster, and are now looking like idiots in the press for it.

And, Brain Fury, you'd never miss me, so what would be the point?