Heritage experts slam Tuffley postbox removal by Royal Mail

ANGRY heritage experts say Royal Mail breached an agreement by taking away an historic postbox in Tuffley.

The red pillar postbox on Fox Elms Road disappeared before Christmas.

new friend: Ronnie the Rhino and the town crier Alan Myatt with customer Maria Tinton and her twins Landry and Madison, one, and Hermione, seven.
missing: Where the post box used to be.

It sparked a protest by residents who have demanded its return.

Now English Heritage have waded into the fight to get the postbox back.

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A spokesman for the organisation said: "We were unaware and now disappointed to hear that an iconic red postbox was removed.

"We have a long standing agreement with the Royal Mail that red letterboxes following the classic design would remain in situ.

"In 2002, English Heritage, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and the Royal Mail announced a joint initiative to preserve the country's classic red letterboxes as they are an icon of British design and very much linked to our national image.

"We agreed that although we would not list them in the same way that we list the iconic K6 red telephone boxes, they would remain untouched.

"We encourage the Royal Mail to remind their staff about this agreement to acknowledge and look after this important part of our heritage and would welcome talks to reinstate the Fox Elms Road postbox."

Campaigner Lorraine Campbell has welcomed English Heritage's backing.

She said: "I'm absolutely delighted that they are backing our cause. This is so valuable. It is looking a lot more hopeful and we are more optimistic that we will one day get our postbox back."

Lorraine and her husband Ross even penned and recorded their own spoof version of the Les Mis hit Do You Hear The People Sing? to help promote their campaign.

They have also sent out a petition to 150 residents.

A spokeswoman for Royal Mail said they were preparing a response but could not comment yet.