The mystery of the disappearing postboxes

Acton Post Box...gone!

Residents in Acton, and also on the Chaucer Estate in Sudbury, were shocked this morning to find that their post boxes had disappeared.

The Acton box was scheduled for removal. A request was made in January 2011 and the Parish Council gave their consent.  However it was agreed that a replacement box would be situated near the bus stop opposite Bob's Stores. The Parish Council have heard nothing further.

The removal in Sudbury is more mysterious.  Apparently the Town Clerk knows nothing about it.  There does not appear to have been any consultation and it is not known if there are plans to site another box elsewhere.

The behaviour of the Post Office seems to have been very careless.  Not only were no notices posted on the boxes to warn people of their imminent removal, but no replacement box has been provided in Acton as agreed. This means that residents have to walk a good deal further to post a letter at present, and some of them find walking any distance a problem.

Goodness knows what is happening in Sudbury.

The Post Office does seem to be a law unto itself.  My last run in with them took place a couple of years ago when the Chilton Sorting Office was undergoing reorganisation.  For several days, in common with others in the area,  we received no post at all, despite the fact that the Post Office is obliged to undertake daily deliveries to all addresses. For several weeks the service was seriously disrupted, despite the desperate endeavours of hard pressed postmen who appeared to be in training for the olympics rather than simply delivering the mail.   My complaints, and those of others, were met with flat denials and a series of misleading claims.  Gradually things got more or less back to normal, but our post now rarely arrives before lunchtime and we regularly receive misaddressed letters. This very rarely happened before.

A complaint with regard to the vanishing boxes has been lodged and it remains to be seen what will happen next.  Given my previous experience I am not very optimistic however.

The powers that be at the Post Office seem to think that the organisation is exempt from the duty that other publicly owned bodies have to engage with and consult the community.  Indeed my experiences in recent years suggest that it seems to have no concept of what customer service amounts to.   No wonder the Government is finding it difficult to dress it up for privatisation.  No one in their right mind would buy the shares

Postbox on the Chaucer Estate in Sudbury, also gone!