Post box thieves deliver setback

VANISHED . . . a post box has disappeared next to the grey Royal Mail box on Longley Street

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THOUSANDS of Shaw residents are without access to a nearby post box as mindless yobs continue to steal them.

Five post boxes have now been stolen from Shaw in the last six months, according to local councillor Howard Sykes who says the delay in replacing them is not acceptable.

There appears to be a borough-wide issue as the Chronicle has previously reported on a number of stolen post boxes in other areas of Oldham this year.

Councillor Sykes wrote to the Royal Mail on May 24 to highlight that post boxes on the Glebe Street/Salts Street junction, Longley Street, Hillside Avenue and Milnrow Road, all in Shaw, had disappeared.

He has now written to them again after it came to his attention that a fifth post box has vanished on Long Rushes, High Crompton.

A Royal Mail spokesman said: "We can confirm that the post boxes were stolen. We apologise to customers for the inconvenience and will replace them as soon as possible.

"We treat all theft of mail and of post boxes extremely seriously and appeal to anyone with information about these thefts to contact the police immediately."

Royal Mail has replaced the post box stolen from Hillside Avenue but Councillor Sykes says it is not in use as there is no collection information on it.

Councillor Sykes has accused Royal Mail of "dragging its feet".

He added: "The delay is not acceptable. Some have been missing for months. The longest now is six-plus months at Dunwood Park Courts.

"How are people supposed to send mail? Royal Mail's own rules say 98 per cent of people should live within half-a-mile of a post box, this is not the case for thousands of my residents.

"It does not take this long to replace mail boxes. They are dragging their feet to save money in my opinion. They refuse to give any sort of time scale, which tells you all you need to know.

"This is just not good enough, people are fed up and angry and they need to get a solution for the thousands of people this is impacting on."

The Chronicle reported in March that a post box on Queens Road, Chadderton, had been stolen.

Also, in February, three post boxes in Saddleworth and two in Mossley were snatched by thieves.