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Pat Manning: ‘I thought my daughter was playing a Valentine’s day joke’
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Festive greetings arrive in time for St Valentine’s day
Christmas card delivered… 56 days late
RETIRED Holloway property manager Pat Manning has finally got a Christmas card from her cousin in Hertfordshire – 56 days late.
Cousin Shelia Collins posted the card, in an envelope with a first-class stamp, on December 19 in Stevenage.
But the card only arrived at Mrs Manning’s home in Camden Road eight weeks later – on Wednesday, February 14.
Mrs Manning said: “I looked at the date and my first thought was it was my daughter playing a Valentine’s Day joke on me. Then I opened the card and it was from cousin Shelia.
“When I rang her to thank her for the card she wondered what the heck I was talking about. Then she remembered she sent the card a week before Christmas.”
The incident is the latest example of late mail deliveries uncovered by Islington Save Our Post campaign, which presses for action on shoddy postal services.
The Post Office is unable to explain why the card took so long to reach its destination.
But Mrs Manning puts it down to what she describes as a “postal Bermuda triangle” in her part of Camden Road.
She explained: “We call it a Bermuda triangle because we are a forgotten area. People, particularly the utilities, find it difficult to locate us. We’re just a few residential properties on a busy main road off Holloway Road.”
Mrs Manning, who has lived in the road for 30 years, added: “I get post for Caledonian Road, Holloway Road and Parkhurst Road. I usually march it up to the address, knock on the door and ask if they have any of mine.”
Former Lib Dem councillor Emma Gowers, who founded Save Our Post, has received resounding support from residents and businesses who have complained about the service.
She said: “After the Tribune reported the issue last summer, there were definite improvements.
“The managers at the North Road sorting office, where we have had particular problems, went out of their way to ensure postal staff knew what they were doing.
“It is not as bad as it was but we are still getting a fair whack of wrongly delivered post.”
A Royal Mail spokesman invited Mrs Manning to bring the envelope to the North Road sorting office, where experts might be able to analyse why it was delayed.
“All we can do is apologise,” he added. “This is the exception rather than the rule.”
First-class mail deliveries in Islington were above the national target figure of 91.4 per cent arriving the next day, the spokesman added. The Islington figure was 92.6 per cent.
Readers having postal problems are urged to contact Ms Gowers at saveourpost@islington-libdems.org.uk
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