Neighbours gather post dossier

FOR two years the neighbours of a Kentish Town street say their valuable post – birthday cards, parcels and internet shopping – has gone missing. Now they are demanding an investigation.
Residents of Prince of Wales Road have put together a dossier of complaints that include late mail, letters to the wrong door and missing packages.
Mike Trailer, who has lived on Prince of Wales Road since 1995 and uses the internet to order goods, said he could no longer shop online. He said: “This has been going on for me for about two years. Anything that looks vaguely interesting is in danger of not getting through. I’ve had parcels of plants, DVDs and books go missing – the companies I order from are starting to get suspicious of me.”
Others have been hit by fraudsters who have intercepted the post. Joey O’Keeffe lost a cheque and a credit card and had her bank account cleaned out by fraudsters.
She added the problem was not new: “This has been going on for four or five years. It’s terrible. We can’t rely on them at all,” she said.
Live Mitchell, who lives at number 36, said her neighbours had taken on an unofficial delivery boy role for her as the postmen could not find her home. She said: “My letters are always going to the wrong doors. I get mail to other houses – I redirect when I can, but that’s not my job. I think all postmen must hate the Prince of Wales Road.”
Blocks of flats on the street also seem to cause a muddle. Una House, at the eastern end of the road, often receives post for flats at the Haverstock end of the street, while Una House post has been delivered in the Denton block by Crogsland Road.
A source at the Kentish Town delivery office in Regis Road – where staff collect their daily rounds – passed the blame on to the massive sorting office in Greenford, Essex. They said: “We have had a number of complaints. But most of these missing parcels aren’t even getting through to us.”
A spokesperson for Royal Mail said: “We have had hardly any complaints. There is a regular postman who has delivered to that road for a number of years. Usually the problem is with the address on the envelope. Our advice to people concerned about deliveries is to make sure they give out the proper address.”