Residents of the new estate on Tingewick Road, St. Rumbold’s Fields, have asked for their own post box, and the Town Council is asking Royal Mail to provide one.
Royal Mail has declined the request because technically there are existing post-boxes within half a mile of the estate (measured as the crow flies) and therefore another cannot be justified. The nearest is one on the corner of Bath Lane and Tingewick Road, and there is another within the measured half mile at the corner of Mitre Street and Gawcott Road, and one just further than half a mile on Embleton Way.
Members of the Town Council’s Planning Committee have appealed to Royal Mail, pointing out that to use the Bath Lane post box requires crossing the Tingewick Road – which has a 50mph speed limit currently – twice, as there is no footpath on the southern side, nor any streetlighting between the estate and Westfields and the other two are even less accessible. Apart from the ordinary post, a need for posting Covid test samples may arise again, and the less mobile residents often select postal votes.
There is a perfect spot in the centre of the housing area at Kings Sutton Square, within a short distance of most of the 398 houses, and with space for the Royal Mail’s collection van to park without obstructing other traffic.
Buckingham Town Council Planning Chairman, Cllr Mark Cole JP, said: “For Royal Mail to decide without consultation that a new 400-dwelling estate housing 1,000 people does not merit a post box is, frankly, ludicrous. Royal Mail delivers, so why the reluctance to collect post as it does on all the other estates? Will they tell us next that the 420 houses off Osier Way will not need a post box when that is completed?
“Given the risks in crossing Tingewick Road to get to the nearest post box in town, and similarly having to cross the bypass from the Osier Way development, we urge Royal Mail to reconsider.”
For enquiries, please contact Paul Hodson at Buckingham Town Council on 01280 816426, or email communications@buckingham-tc.gov.uk
