Postal deliveries, it’s one of the few subjects that can make a heart sink as low as one of those cards that says you have to go to the sorting office to collect a package that could not be delivered.

Try as we might, we cannot drill down to an official Royal Mail policy that resolves the issue, other than to advise that if you request redelivery, do make sure to request that your bell is rung.

Postal deliveries are often an issue, especially in larger blocks, but do remember that if you want flat-by-flat delivery then you have to arrange safe and reliable access to the building for the postman.

Even then,  the Royal Mail’s official stance is that if there’s already a facility such as a central bank of mail boxes in the lobby, they will only deliver to those boxes, not door to door.

No doubt hard-pressed posties prefer that arrangement to having to get to every front door. After all, as one of them posted (sic) on the Royal Mail  chat site,  650+ doors to deliver to in a round is not unusual.

Add to that an extra five minutes at, say, every 50th door for a signed delivery or to leave a card, and it soon adds up to a long and busy day. By the way, if the block or building does have a single delivery point in the lobby, then individuals cannot request delivery to their own doors.

However, door to door delivery for the whole block should is still be provided if:

  • Each flat residence is a self-contained and is separately and individually rated by the local authority for council tax purposes.
  • Each flat can be clearly identified (with a number, letter or name) and has its own letterbox (or a secure lockable receptacle that clearly corresponds to the residence)
  • The Royal Mail delivery staff can gain safe and easy access to perform delivery to your residence.

If you aren’t getting the service you’d like and meet those criteria, do get in touch with your local delivery office.

However, the days when the post had always arrived before 9 are long gone and fewer buildings these days are happy to allow extended traditional tradesman’s entry, if that effectively means that anyone can get into the building while the intercom is on ‘free flow’, so what is the answer?

External boxes would work; or, accepting a single drop of everyone’s mail onto the mat and relying on the first kind resident home to sort them out and deliver to the doors of elderly or less-able neighbours.

As ever, working together as neighbours is the key to making life simpler all round. Besides, if you think you’ve got problems, have a look at these unusual reasons given for non-delivery:

A couple in Woburn Sands in Buckinghamshire missed their deliveries for a fortnight, after the postie said their hanging baskets were too big and posed a hazard. There was no formal suspension, and after the couple approached the BBC, the Royal Mail sent a health and safety inspector to check the size of the baskets – at which point deliveries resumed.

A woman in West Yorkshire was told she wouldn’t receive her post when it rained, because her house was only accessible by a path which became slippery when wet. The 82-year-old resident pointed out that she used the path in all conditions and seemed to be managing.

In 2013 residents on a road in Perranporth  didn’t receive mail for weeks after seagulls nested nearby. They were attacking pedestrians, and were particularly aggressive towards anyone in red – so the Royal Mail staff suffered gull-related injuries. The post had to wait until the latest batch of chicks were hatched and the gulls moved on.

One postie refused to deliver a letter to a home in Clapham, and made a note on the envelope explaining it couldn’t be delivered because of a massive spider’s web on the front gate. The letter was delivered by a colleague the following day, who added the note ‘What!’

Reviewed 30/03/2023 – NR

FP393-2017

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