Residents' fury as postbox removed to make way for driveway

5:44pm Tuesday 21st October 2008

RESIDENTS have reacted with rage after their post box was removed because a neighbour was having work done to his driveway.

A box on the corner of Edenbridge Road has not been replaced despite a promise from Royal Mail that it would be replaced "a week or so" after it was removed on October 9.

Julie Jewson, 61, was walking her dog on Edenbridge Road when she saw the post box on the corner with Wellington Road being lifted through the air on a winch.

She said: "They were hoisting the postbox out of the ground onto a lorry. There was about three foot of concrete below it, but I couldn't go near them because of the dog was having kittens.

"As I was walking along I saw a postman and he phoned his manager but neither of them knew anything about it and he had to phone up the office to see if someone was stealing a phone box.

"I am utterly furious. There was no consultation. This post box has been there since the war. It is used so much that sometimes when you go it is full up."

John Kerridge, 84 of Park Avenue, drove to the postbox on Saturday and thought he had got the wrong road.

He said: "I think at the very least they should have put a notice on the postbox saying it was going to be moved, because we have been left completely in the air."

The Wellington Road resident having the box removed, who would not give his name, said he wanted the driveway for a new, larger garage near his house rather than at the end of his garden.

A shift worker, he said he often came home late at night and had to park in side roads.

He said: "I can't believe it. I just want a driveway some as everybody else. It just seems ridiculous to have all this fuss over a postbox."

Royal Mail said that two post boxes will have to resited as a result of driveways, which will be done "very near" to their former location.

A spokesman said last week that they were waiting for planning permission from the council for the resiting of the box, which they were hoping to get within the next week or so.

But spokesman for the council added to the confusion. He said: "It is for the Royal Mail to decide where and when to relocate the post box. "Planning permission is not needed for the removal of the post box and a new crossover. The council approved the construction of the crossover, subject to Royal Mail agreeing to relocate the post box and that the application met the criteria."