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Anger at mail ban over bitten postman

Mar 8 2009 by Coreena Ford, Sunday Sun

Irene Robson now has to take the bus to get her mail

THE postman doesn’t ring once, never mind twice, in one North street since he was attacked by a pet dog.

Now a dozen householders, many of them elderly, have been left without their mail for two weeks . . . and there’s little chance of them getting their letters anytime soon.

The delivery drama began when the postie who delivers to Arran Grove, Thornley, near Peterlee, County Durham, was badly bitten by a four-year-old German Shepherd called Simba, owned by showman Philip Cooper who lives in a neighbouring street, Fair View.

The postman was bitten on the leg and wrist, and requires plastic surgery to hand wounds.

Royal Mail bosses have sent letters to the residents — ironically delivered by a postman — saying deliveries will be stopped until “actions have been taken to guarantee the safety of our staff”.

The 12 outraged residents in the quiet cul-de-sac now have to walk two-thirds of a mile to the nearest Post Office to ask if they have any mail, and on some days it could be a wasted journey

They say they are being unfairly penalised for the actions of a dog which does not even live in their street.

Irene Robson, 82, whose husband Bill, 75, a retired miner, is recovering from open-heart surgery, stormed: “I think the Royal Mail has a nerve to send a postman round here to deliver letters saying it is unsafe to deliver our mail.

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