Face-to-face talks demand in Wem postal row
Friday 25th November 2011, 10:59AM GMT.
Campaigners have demanded face-to-face talks with Royal Mail bosses after the business refused their requests to drop the Shrewsbury reference from postal addresses in Wem.
Currently Royal Mail uses a system in which all letters for Wem include the county town in their address – despite residents complaining it causes post to regularly go missing.
Earlier this week bosses told residents they had no intention of changing it.
But Wem Town Council has vowed to fight on and call on the support of North Shropshire MP Owen Paterson after Royal Mail refused to amend its system.
Councillors claim many people outside the area wrongly believe Wem to be a part of Shrewsbury instead of a separate town several miles away.
At their meeting last night, town councillors vowed to fight on despite being told this week that Royal Mail has no intention of tweaking its system to benefit the town.
Councillor John Murray said: “I’m sick to death of getting stuff for High Street, Shrewsbury, coming to my address in High Street, Wem.”
Councillor Mandy Meakin suggested Royal Mail adopts a format whereby Wem is given as being ‘near Shrewsbury’ in a bid to end the ongoing confusion.
Councillor Edward Towers, Mayor of Wem, said: “We have to do something for the people of Wem.
“We need to write a stiff letter back to the Royal Mail and also send it to Owen Paterson.
“We need them (Royal Mail) to come and address it.”
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Is this minor row still dragging on?
It’s not a postcode problem,it’s an address problem.People posting letters to Wem need not put Shrewsbury on the address.
I live in a particular street in Shrewsbury the name of which is duplicated in Wem,when people address letters Wem,Shrewsbury that’s where the confusion is caused.
Also if people actually put the postcode for Wem on the letter it would help enormously that’s what postcodes are for.
Sorted,by the way there are more important issues that the Wem Council should tackle,get a life.
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Quite agree with john on this. I have sent numerous letters to various people in Wem and have never put Shrewsbury in the address, just the name, street and post code. They all got there, from Greece, so I can’t see the problem.
Incidentally, the town council do not use Shrewsbury in their address on the govt. website.
More important things to tackle john???? You obviously don’t know Wem very well, this is a major issue for them. It gives them an excuse to hold a meeting.
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So if people are correctly addressing letters to Wem, Shrewsbury, as insisted on by Royal Mail, then why does Royal Mail fail to deliver it to the correct address? As usual it’s because Royal Mail are totally unreliable – the major drawback to ordering anything by mail order or via the internet. I don’t live in Wem but my post frequently goes astray because there is a house with a similar name to mine 3 miles away and with a completely different postcode. When I pointed out to the postman the differences in postcode he said “oh, we never go by that”. As a result, I always pay extra to have goods ordered over the internet delivered by private courier.
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The world in economic turmoil, millions of people living in abject poverty and wars raging overseas. Yet the people of Wem are worried about what people might write on their post – PATHETIC!
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