Demand for replacement of missing Portland post box (From Dorset Echo)

Demand for replacement of missing Portland post box

12:00pm Saturday 20th March 2010 in

• Skip social links
• Print
• Email
• Comments(0)

COUNCILLOR Les Ames is calling on Royal Mail to replace a removed post box on Portland immediately.

Boxes have been removed from both Avalanche Road and Seven Acres in the last year and not replaced.

Coun Ames says that has left more than 1,200 residents – many of them elderly – relying on one solitary post box.

He has been told the Avalanche Road box will not be back – but is urging postal chiefs to reinstate the Seven Acres box at once.

Coun Ames, county councillor for Portland, said: “It’s getting quite serious now.

“Every day I’m getting calls from concerned residents, asking when the post box will be back.”

The Avalanche Road box was scrapped a year ago to make way for new street lighting.

The Seven Acres box was removed around four months ago while a new fence was installed.

Coun Ames said: “Royal Mail tell me they’re not going to replace the Avalanche Road box.

“They promised the box in Seven Acres would be replaced but it hasn’t - we’re still waiting.”

Coun Ames said more than 1,200 people were now relying on one post box – tucked away in Southwell. “There are lots of elderly people here,” he said. “And their nearest post box is more than a mile away.

“Unless people have got a car, they’re helpless. It was especially bad for them during the winter.”

Coun Ames says he has done all he can – and is urging Royal Mail to replace the Seven Acres box now.

He added: “There’s nothing Dorset County Council can do – this rests entirely on Royal Mail.

“I’ve been trying to sort this out for months but they are the only people that can help us.”

Local resident Yvonne Spratt, 65, of Mead Bower, echoed Coun Ames’s sentiments.

She said: “They had to take the box down while they put the new fence in, I understand that, but they haven’t replaced it.

“There are so many elderly people in this area, who all used that box, and now it’s disappeared.

“We’re all wondering where it’s gone. It’s quite a walk to the nearest one and I think they should replace it.

“They complain we don’t use Royal Mail enough, that we don’t send enough letters but how can we when we haven’t even got a post box?”

A Royal Mail spokesman said: “We would like to apologise to our customers for any inconvenience this has caused.

“We are taking steps to replace the post box at Seven Acres at the moment.”