TWO voters from Rock got a costly surprise when they had to pay £1.27 to collect an envelope from their local Post Office – only to find all it contained was an unsolicited election leaflet.
The leaflet, addressed to Michael and Diana Maberly, had been sent from the Launceston office of Liberal Democrat candidate Dan Rogerson.
But its envelope had no stamp, and Royal Mail was unable to deliver it. Instead, the postman left a note advising that there was an "item" awaiting collection.
"I had no idea what it might be, so went into Wadebridge to get it," said Mrs Maberly.
"I paid the £1.27 and opened it immediately. To say that I was disappointed is a bit of an understatement – it's bad enough getting all the election leaflets through your letterbox, but when you have to make a special trip and then pay for the privilege, it's a pretty poor show.
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"The counter clerk at the Post Office told me they had quite a pile of similarly undelivered envelopes.
"I telephoned the Liberal Democrats in Launceston to complain and Mr Rogerson called me back to apologise. He also offered to pay me back the £1.27. He was very nice about it but I have to say the whole experience has made me less likely to vote for the Liberal Democrats."
All general election candidates are allowed one "free" delivery to each registered household address during the campaign, but they have to be in special envelopes.
The Royal Mail said that as far as it was aware, the un-stamped envelope addressed to Mr and Mrs Maberly was the only one of its kind.
"There were some other unpaid items awaiting collection," said a spokesman, "but as far as we know these were not election leaflets."
A spokesman for North Cornwall Liberal Democrats said: "We are very sorry to hear about this incident and the inconvenience caused. Royal Mail have told us that the number of these letters is very few, and we are speaking with all our campaign volunteers to make sure that this doesn't happen again. The overwhelming majority of our campaign literature is delivered by hand."
