A LONG-running saga over the attempted replacement of a postbox stolen five years ago has been described as “a farce”.
Two sites for the replacement box, taken from Coed Talon, between Pontybodkin and Treuddyn, were looked at but dismissed on safety grounds by Royal Mail staff, and a third site was earmarked.
But Treuddyn councillor Carolyn Thomas said that site had now been deemed unsuitable – and a fourth place now needs to be found to house the post box.
She said a member of staff from the Royal Mail phoned her after a story about the postbox appeared in the Leader and said the site was deemed unsafe because postmen would have to park and cross the road.
Cllr Thomas said: “The original location is close to utilities so cannot be reinstalled, the alternative that residents and officers on site agreed with on a grass verge with off-road parking and permission from the landowner was deemed unsafe and too near a junction.
“The old postbox was there and was fine until it got pinched. There’s a pavement and houses, the postman parks and delivers there every day and we got the speed limit reduced from 60 mph to 40 mph a few years ago.”
Royal Mail staff have visited the site on a number of occasions over the past five years attempting to find a suitable site.
“It is a farce,” said Cllr Thomas.
“It has been going on for years. How much time do we waste trying to sort something out when common sense should prevail?”
A spokesman for the Royal Mail said the third site that was looked at was deemed unsafe but they were now in the process of looking at a fourth site.
l Frustration over missing post boxes in the county appears to be growing, as a laminated card has mysteriously appeared at the site of a postbox stolen out of a wall in Cadole in September.
The card read: “Smashed from walls. Ripped out of the ground. As a rash of thefts spreads across the country, who is stealing Britain’s postboxes?”
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