Why is there not a lot of slot on this post box? The mystery deepens...

The oddly slimmed down slot of a post box seems set to remain a mystery as even the Royal Mail don’t appear to be able to say why it’s there.

Readers will recall how a Swinton resident was annoyed that he couldn’t fit an ordinary-sized greetings card through the very narrow slot on the post box on the corner of Lansdowne Crescent.

The resident said that the slot had a special plate fitted some time ago and that a Royal Mail delivery person had told him it was put in place after someone posted dog faeces into the box.

But the resident said the difficulty in posting letters means that many elderly residents in the area are being forced to use post boxes which are further away.

In our story back in mid-August, the estate resident said: “The plate restricts its use by people living close to the post box.

“If they have got a post box there then they should be able to use it.

“I wanted to post a card but when I tried to put it through it would just not go in.

“It was too narrow.

“To me the plate should be off now.”

At the time Royal Mail told the Advertiser that it was “investigating” why the plate has been placed on the post box.

But, many weeks later now and despite regular promptings by the Advertiser, it still seems they are none the wiser and haven’t yet come up with the first class delivery of an answer.

An early response by Royal Mail was “There’s many thousands of postboxes so it can take them a little time” but since then we’ve been told that the people with answers were on annual leave.

Then the mystery deepened as the Advertiser was told “none of the current managers are aware of the plate being fitted, and they have been at Delivery Office for the past two to three years, so it appears to have been in place for some time”.

When asked if the plates were commonly used, the response was “Doesn’t appear so.”

Needless to say, we will provide you with an answer when we get one...