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For recipients who were waiting to receive Christmas cards at the end of last year, many were left puzzled about their whereabouts after lengthy delays.
Across the UK, residents visiting their local postboxes have encountered a stark transformation: the iconic red pillars are covered in black plastic, with their letter slots sealed shut.
With these postboxes displaying no information on when they might return to serve their usual function, many communities have been left cut off from the postal service.
Royal Mail announced in August that it was rolling out 3,500 “postboxes of the future” which have a digitally activated drop down drawer for parcels. With the digital aspects of the postbox powered by a solar panel on their cap, the new design ticked the environmentally friendly box. However, a botched rollout has led to members of the public waiting for their postbox to be upgraded whilst it sits disused.
In Ipswich, Louise Richardson said finding working postboxes first became problematic at the start of December.
When Richardson, 33, was on the school run she noticed that postboxes in the Suffolk villages of Claydon and Bramford and in Ipswich, were taped off from use for at least two months. The worst case highlighted to Richardson was a postbox being out of action for six months.
These postboxes have finally been upgraded after a lengthy wait but many postboxes such as the one on Defoe Road, Ipswich, remain wrapped up. Frustrated by their redundant postbox, local residents have started shoving letters through the black plastic.
Louise Richardson on Defoe Road
JASON BYE FOR THE TIMES
Richardson, the owner of the greetings card business Two for Joy Illustration, said: “To have a postbox out of use for an average of four months around here is absolutely wild. I’ve had to go out of my way and ironically it’s been difficult to find a post office open which is what the newly designed postboxes aimed to solve.”
People have resorted to posting on neighbourhood social media groups to seek information as the signs on the black postboxes have been vague and only state: “Out of Service: Automated System, Coming Soon.” The communities affected by Royal Mail’s delays to upgrading postboxes have varied across the UK and have included: Tavistock, Stockport, Lacock, in Wiltshire, Treorchy, in Wales, as well as neighbourhoods in Edinburgh and Ware, in Hertfordshire.
Royal Mail told The Times the turnaround time for upgrading the boxes can be several weeks as each box is individually measured, its door is taken off and is then retrofitted at their Gloucester engineering centre. The boxes are wrapped in black to protect them from weather and vandalism.
Navendu Mishra, Stockport’s MP, had members of the public get in touch due to confusion about their wrapped up letter box. Mishra said Royal Mail had “lacked clarity in terms of the postbox programme which it was delivering”.
“Many of the older people in my constituency rely on the post service and not everyone is tech savvy,” Mishra added.
Marie-Clair Munro, a councillor in Edinburgh, said that in December she received a “significant amount” of correspondence from elderly residents who were unaware that postboxes were being upgraded to a modern design as they were unable to access the Royal Mail’s app.
“The disruption has been particularly difficult for those without digital tools,” Munro said. Royal Mail reportedly told Munro, 54, that residents could find out more about the disruption via their smartphones but the councillor said this marginalised those without access to the technology.
To operate the new postboxes, customers are required to scan a barcode on the Royal Mail app to open the solar-powered drawer for parcels too large for the traditional letter slot. Some residents have complained online that the small solar powered panel doesn’t always generate enough electricity for the digital aspects of the new design to function properly.
Richardson, a postbox enthusiast, said the digital boxes could be awkward to use as “when they make noises you can’t quite hear them with traffic moving past on the roads”. “The new design is very shoddily done and now they are being altered in a way which feels rushed and careless,” she said.
Despite residents frequently voicing their frustration with delays to upgrades, others have welcomed Royal Mail’s decision to innovate.
Lloyd Greenfield, chief executive of Glow Green, which instals solar panels, said the new models show how clean energy can “support essential public services efficiently and responsibly”.
He added: “It’s important to remember progress and preservation can coexist, especially in an era defined by rapid change and an urgent need to address climate challenges”.
Matt Gower of Royal Mail previously said: “We’ve put a huge effort into the design and delivery of our environment strategy so that we continue to be the UK’s greenest parcel operator.”
Royal Mail has faced burgeoning competition from private courier delivery services and parcel drop-off lockers since its monopoly ended in 2006. Before their rollout, the new postboxes were initially trialled in Hertfordshire and Cambridgeshire in April last year.
A Royal Mail spokesperson said: “Our postboxes of the future offer another convenient way for customers to access Royal Mail’s services, alongside home delivery and collection, our Customer Service Points, Post Office branches, lockers and Royal Mail Shop outlets.
“We thank customers for their patience whilst we upgrade some postboxes, and our postbox team is working hard to ensure that they are operational as quickly as possible. We’re pleased to see positive feedback from customers in areas where postboxes of the future have already been introduced”.
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