Residents on a street in Risca have been left without their post, after the Royal Mail suspended deliveries following concerns over the safety of its workers.
A number of addresses on Holly Road, Risca, have been refused delivery of their mail following an “incident” on Thursday June 15.
Instead, residents have been advised to collect their mail from a delivery office in Abercarn – nearly five miles away – or have it redirected to another address.
Royal Mail spokeswoman Sally Hopkins said: “Our staff have previously been threatened and intimidated, including having items are regularly thrown at them as they try to deliver residents’ mail.
“The safety of our staff is of paramount importance to us and the decision to suspend mail deliveries is never one we take lightly.
“We apologise to affected customers. We are working with the local council and the police to find a way to resume deliveries safely as soon as possible.”
One week we hear of firefighters being attacked and the next week we hear our ‘posties’ are being threatened. What is the matter with some people? These workers are providing a service, they may be delivering an urgent medical appointment, a letter from a loved one, a premium bond win, an offer of a job and a host of other communications that are vital for a civilised existence. Despite this the knuckle dragging element of our society sees them as fair game as targets for their warped sense of fun.
I am pretty sure that interference with the Royal Mail is a serious crime, the Great Train Robbers fell foul of this an were issued with longer sentences than usual. Unless these laws protecting mail workers have been repealed perhaps it would be better to continue mail deliveries under police surveillance. Anybody caught interfering with the mail gets a stiff sentence – it might just work!
I can understand Royal Mail not wishing to place their staff open to further threats; intimidation and the risk of injury but the morons causing the problems are in the minority, but are ensuring by their selfish and cowardly actions that the majority of law abiding residents are the ones suffering the consequences of inconvenience by not having their mail delivered.
I agree the police should be carrying out surveillance while the mail deliveries continue – in order to try and apprehend the culprits.
The message should be clear – “disrupt the mail and you’ll get jail “
That is it in a nutshell. Disruption of the mail, private deliverers, etc, cannot be tolerated. The managers at Royal Mail made the right decision which is pull your workers out of a dangerous situtaion. Once that is done it is a police matter and the police should very quickly move to return deliveies to normal.