Royal Mail won't deliver our post... because of potholes!

[TrueBlueTerrier]

https://www.msn.com/en-my/news/other/ro ... elemetry=1

A disabled woman in her 60s has said she is 'filled with despair' after the Royal Mail refused to deliver post to her remote hamlet because the route's windy road is 'too dangerous'.

Val Bennallick, 62, who has multiple sclerosis, was left without deliveries for a month before being informed that postmen had no intention of returning to the bumpy track which leads to Essworthy, a hamlet in east Devon.

Instead, the retired teacher was told that she and the hamlet's seven other residents would have to complete a 14-mile round trip to collect their parcels from Okehampton, a neighbouring town.

Ms Bennallick told The Times: 'I don't want to be cut off from the mail, but I wasn't told for over a month. You think to yourself, how on earth can that happen? It's just ridiculous.'

Eventually, the courier told Ms Bennallick that the route was too unsafe even to inform her of the change.

She continued: 'To me, it's a vital service. I do a lot of things online but some things have to be sent to me, like labels for my regular blood tests.'

Residents of Essworthy now face either putting up a postbox elsewhere or travelling 14 miles in total to collect their post.

Although she admitted the road 'wasn't good', Ms Bennallick, who drives a Ford Fiesta, said that the other residents, tradesmen and workers delivering oil nonetheless travel on it 'every day'.





The outspoken retiree complained to Royal Mail in a number of emails. In one, she called the courier's conduct 'unbelievable, unprofessional, uncaring and downright disgusting.'

'All the upset and stress this has caused would be bad enough for any young, fit person but I have a number of health issues.

'The prospect of having to travel 14 miles to try and get answers and doing that same trip for the rest of my life to get my post just fills me with dread and despair.'

A Royal Mail employee apologised to Ms Bennallick, who is now awaiting a response from the local delivery office manager.

A Royal Mail spokesperson told MailOnline: 'Deliveries were suspended due to concerns from the local team about the poor quality of the private road.

'We are sorry that this was not communicated to Ms Bennallick.

'We are reassessing these deliveries as a matter of urgency and will work with Ms Bennallick to provide a solution.'

[TrueBlueTerrier]

I am torn here. Yes the road looks bad and the residents could band together and fill the pothole, but when I worked for Royal Mail I had one delivery to a farm that was down a gravel track in a lot worse condition than this one, all I did was drive slowly and avoid the potholes where possible.

They certainly should not have stopped without informing the residents.

[Londonsburning]

That's a COM just bumping that hamlets mail because pothole get the OPG to deliver more of the failing tracked elsewhere within the town

[Londonsburning]

I am torn here. Yes the road looks bad and the residents could band together and fill the pothole, but when I worked for Royal Mail I had one delivery to a farm that was down a gravel track in a lot worse condition than this one, all I did was drive slowly and avoid the potholes where possible.

They certainly should not have stopped without informing the residents.

I genuinely see worse road surfaces every 2 minutes in the city I live and work
Literal double decker buses and artics up and down them constantly day and night

[wally11]

That doesn't look too bad to me.ive got one rural farm track with half the track washed away in parts due to the heavy rain washing it away little by little. On another track I've got a cattle grid that's bust up all over the place.

[ted_e_bear]

Same, it's far from being as smooth as a snooker table but we've got far worse, some of our rural tracks have to be driven at about 5 mph in parts, as above I reckon someones over reacting here it's not as though they have to use their own car either.

[Londonsburning]

Same, it's far from being as smooth as a snooker table but we've got far worse, some of our rural tracks have to be driven at about 5 mph in parts, as above I reckon someones over reacting here it's not as though they have to use their own car either.

Lol how many calls have your rurals got? I'll take driving 5mph over rural tracks between calls over having 1200 calls on my duty all day any day

[ted_e_bear]

Same, it's far from being as smooth as a snooker table but we've got far worse, some of our rural tracks have to be driven at about 5 mph in parts, as above I reckon someones over reacting here it's not as though they have to use their own car either.

Lol how many calls have your rurals got? I'll take driving 5mph over rural tracks between calls over having 1200 calls on my duty all day any day

Eh, not too sure what that's got to do with the original post but my point was it's not an issue to navigate pot holed roads if you take it easy and drive sensibly according to the conditions.

And yes as it happens I agree I'd also love to do one of those duties where you spend a good chunk just driving and don't have to contend with s**t loads of mail, d2ds and parcels but unfortunately I can't either

[TopperGas]

If RM were going to stop delivering then surely it would have been good business practice to write to each customer to advised them of their decision, even if it seems a farcical one anyway. I wonder if the Tracked still get delivered or are all now marked "inaccessible" whilst Amazon & co have no issues delivering their parcels?

[SpacePhoenix]

You get pot holes worse than that in towns