ROYAL Mail has stopped postmen delivering letters to a row of houses – because walking on a grass verge has been deemed "too dangerous".
The health and safety ban came about after one postman complained about the street on his round.
And bosses agreed that a short stretch of grass between car tracks and residents' front doors was unsafe for posties to walk along.
Royal Mail say the grass verge leading to the terraced homes on Severn View, Pontypool was against health and safety rules.
It has left neighbours leaving on the tiny 10-house street having to walk up and down a steep hill to collect their mail from a local Post Office.
Richard Osborne, aged 70, said: "We still get all of our junk mail through the letterbox but anything important like the deeds to my house, are sitting in the post office, it's unbelievable.
"They even refuse to put slips through your door for parcels that are too big and need collecting – how will you know that if they don't put the slip through the door?
"I've written to my local MP as it's just gone on long enough."
Eileen Hatch, aged 91, said: "Not being able to have our post delivered is upsetting, we are lucky Jackie and Paul volunteered to take our papers so we go up there.
"When the weather gets worse I may not be able to walk up to the post office and I'll have to rely on my neighbours or my son."
Royal Mail have promised to carry out another further assessment.
Local Labour Councillor Gwyneira Clarke said she understood the neighbours' concerns.
She said: "I can't believe it, how on earth can they allow this to happen and treat elderly people like that? We can't take away vital services, it's not right.
"It's safe enough for all these elderly people to walk up and down the road, and in my experience they deliver to some pretty remote places. Its health and safety gone mad."
A Royal Mail spokesman said they would carry out a further "safety assessment" before deciding whether to resume services to the residents.
He said: "We apologise to customers in the Severn View area of Pontypool for any inconvenience as a result of disruption to their mail service.
"We will conduct a further health and safety assessment of the area as soon as possible and notify customers of the outcome."
"In the meantime, customers can continue to collect their mail from the local Post Office."
What are they telling us all the time? "You need to update the Walk Logs with any Hazards". Perhaps they should add the proviso that, "Royal Mail will of course ignore them if it suits us"?