OVER the period of the past three weeks the postal service has come in for some severe criticism in the readers' letters column. I think it is time to redress this issue.

Let's look at some facts.

Royal Mail is not allowed to deliver before 7.00am.

Postmen and postwomen have got to get up around 5.00am each morning - whatever the weather. Perhaps your two correspondents haven't noticed the appalling weather over the past eight months?

Depending on your duty you may have to cover 100 houses or up to 400 houses.

Many postpersons are taking out six or seven bags of mail on many occasions.

All this for a take home wage of less than £200. Yes, us posties are well rewarded for our back-breaking work close to the 21st Century, being paid 19th century wages.

So before people start criticising something they obviously know very little about, perhaps they should just think for a minute what the job entails.

With a bit of luck the two correspondents will be invited down to the office to see how Royal Mail works. Perhaps Royal Mail can arrange an 'Open Day'?

There again, our two main critics will proberably be too busy to see the other side of the story.

A POSTMAN

Warrington

Converted for the new archive on 13 March 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.