Councillor issues local villages post-box plea

going to bat for Waringsford and other local villages

following newsof a post-box

boost for rural areas of Northern Ireland.

Councillor Olive Mercer welcomed an announcement from the recently privatised Royal Mail that it planned to install around 2,000 new post-boxes in “underserviced” rural areas of Northern Ireland and Scotland.

The Ulster Unionist Councillor said that as a result of the announcement she meant to revisit earlier calls from Waringsford for the reinstatement of a post-box there.

“Some time ago,” she said, “ theresidents of Waringsford made a request for the reinstatement of a post-box in the village.

“Ofcom recommends that Royal Mail should have post-boxes within half a mile of 98% of households and as Waringsford’s nearest post-box is more than half a mile away, I will again ask Royal Mail to give the village and other local rural villages and hamlets a high priority when considering the proposed new post- box allocation.

Royal Mail’s plans also include installing new post-boxes in areas of high pedestrian traffic, among them train stations and shopping precincts.

The collection time at almost 50,000 Royal Mail post-boxes will be brought forward to earlier in the day - between 9am and 3pm, with later collections only at specific sites.

Increasingly staff delivering letters will be expected to make pick-ups from the boxes as part of their rounds.

Royal Mail has indicated that postmen and women empty some 12,000 post -boxes in rural areas thoughout the UK and many of the new, additional boxes will be targeted at these areas.

The new system is designed to improve efficiency amid a decade-long decline in stamped mail use.”