Belsoc member, Mallory Wobor writes:
Royal Mail held the monopoly on postal services for 350 years until 2006 when it had to start competing with other companies such as DHL, Evri and so on. In December 2024 it was announced, IDS (International Delivery Services), as the privatised holding company had become, would be bought by EP Group, owned a Czech tycoon, Daniel Kretinsky. He, incidentally, is the second biggest shareholder of West Ham football club and owns a lavish property nearby, in Bishops Avenue, once the home of William Lyle of ‘Tate and Lyle’ fame. The acquisition was completed in April of this year but Royal Mail performance still lags behind targets and big changes are planned, including, of course, stopping Saturday and alternate weekday second class post deliveries.
So, what, we should ask, has any of this to do with Pillar Boxes?
Most of us who live in Belsize will have been sadly familiar with our fading and rusting pillar boxes at street corners decorated with remnants of stickers. Collection times have become fewer over the years, and there has been a general impression that the organisation is not really keen to collect (and then deliver) letters and small parcels, reinforced by outrageous charges for stamps.
A few efforts have been made to enliven this widespread evidence of decay, such as the knitted figures attached to the top of a box outside Allchin’s Pharmacy, in Englands Lane and the MIND charity shop on Haverstock Hill.
It was a great surprise, therefore, very recently to see ‘our’ letter box in Lancaster Grove suddenly looking like a casualty of some space warriors invasion; it seemed to have had a giant slice cut downwards from the top, and the wound assuaged by having copious black sticky tape bound round the whole; a printed sign promised developments soon to come.
Within a few days this promise has been fulfilled. At the top there is an array of solar power panels, mounted into a broad red plastic unit capping the original box. The whole thing is newly painted in correct glossy red.
On the front are various instructions and a broad letter slot above a pull-down handle. This opens a large orifice to enable users to insert packages up to the size of a shoebox. These new devices for posting packages without having to visit a post office, have been trialled successfully and are now being rolled out across the UK.
The instructions on the front guide users to weigh and measure their package and print out an address form at home to fix to the package. A scanner on the post box allows one to post it securely and track the package to its destination through an App.
It looks simple enough but let’s see how successful this will become. If you prefer, you can still visit our friendly Belsize Park Post Office at Kavanagh’s supermarket, open Monday to Saturday 9am to 5pm or the new Swiss Cottage Post Office at MG Food, 7 Northways Parade, open 9-5:30pm Mon-Sat.
Here are some more details giving practical details on using these new boxes.
