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THIS patch of tarmac is all that remains
to remind local people of the pillar box that stood on this site.
Until, that is, the health and safety people at Royal Mail decided
it was not safe to let it stay.
Was it in danger of
toppling over? No. Was the slot for the letters
too small and might
trap someone's hand, or have a sharp edge that might cut them? No and no.
The problem was the tiny
wall in front of the pillar box. It might cause
difficulties for the postmen and women or the public. Ridiculous.
An adult could easily reach over to post a letter or empty the box.
And any child could have stood safely on the wall
and dropped the mail in the box with the supervision of a
responsible adult. Any child too small to reach even from the wall
could have been held up to the box by the adult.
The pillar box stood on the
corner of the forecourt in front of Hospital Street Methodist Church
(see final paragraph) and the wall is part of the barrier that runs right across the front
of the area - apart from the entrance, of course.
But in these days of the
farce of legal
action left, right and centre faced by local authorities and
others, the Royal Mail decided it was better to move the pillar box
away from the wall. To date, the box hasn't been re-sited (see panel
below).
I suppose - to be fair -
you can't blame the Royal
Mail in a way. It is much cheaper to
move the box |
