The Royal Mail won't deliver my post because of ‘health and safety gone mad'
When Val Bennallick moved to the remote east Devon hamlet of Essworthy a decade ago, she dreamt of peaceful, rural living. She never imagined it would cost her the post.
But Royal Mail has now made the 62-year-old's life a 'nightmare' by refusing to deliver to her home and the hamlet's seven other residents, she says, claiming the bumpy, pothole-ridden dirt track the settlement sits along makes it too 'dangerous' to do so.
In recent correspondence sent to Bennallick, who relies on her post to manage hospital appointments for multiple sclerosis, Royal Mail said its employees were no longer willing to deliver her mail as the road posed a risk to their 'health and safety'.
Instead, the letter seen by The Telegraph proposed she undertake a 14-mile round trip to collect her post from a depot in Okehampton. After doing so a number of times, Bennallick asked the company whether she could receive her post at a nearby post office in Hatherleigh – roughly one mile away – instead. Royal Mail has now confirmed she and the other residents in Essworthy may do so. But the sense of frustration at being cut off from direct deliveries remains.
'Would anyone really be happy with having to do that trip every time you thought you might have mail?' Bennallick says from her country home. 'This is health and safety gone mad. I know the road is not very good, but by doing this Royal Mail is screwing over the small people.'
Her saga takes place while Royal Mail is in the midst of a major shake-up. Under new proposals put forward by its regulator, Ofcom, the postal service's quality-of-service targets will be watered down, with the delivery of second-class post to be halted on alternate weekdays and Saturdays.
Critics have accused the company, which lost £348 million in 2024 – when it was bought by Czech billionaire Daniel Křetínský – of having 'systematically failed' to meet its statutory obligations in recent years.
'I've lived here for 10 years and always had lovely posties who would just throw open my front door and stop for a chat,' says Bennallick. 'But now they've stopped delivering.'
Canvassing the opinions of those who have made a home of this remote hamlet, which enjoys views of native woodland and the Hatherleigh Moor, it is clear the road has been a problem for some time.
A protected bridleway, which cannot be tarmacked or concreted over, maintenance of the track falls upon the five properties to which it leads – one of which is now derelict.
Two years ago, some of the residents clubbed together and spent £2,000 filling in the worst of its offending potholes.But following heavy rains this winter, the narrow lane is once again riddled with deep cavities and uneven ground, which strain any vehicles trying to make their way down it. Some locals say it needs £80,000-worth of repairs.
Still, Bennallick, a retired teacher who drives a Ford Fiesta, insists that many vehicles regularly traverse the road despite its poor condition, casting question marks over Royal Mail's health and safety claims. 'All types of delivery vans come down,' she says. 'And oil tankers and tractors. So why can't Royal Mail?'
'On the Scottish island of Kerrera, they used to have posties who went about on quad bikes to deliver to rural locations. But clearly this isn't possible in darkest Devon. How many others are being refused like me?' Bennallick says her post stopped coming in December, and claims there was no initial warning from Royal Mail that it would no longer be delivered to her home.When she was made aware the service had been curtailed, Bennallick discovered she had missed important letters from the hospital – which were therefore weeks out of date.Royal Mail has since apologised for the lack of communication, but stands firm in its decision to cancel deliveries to Essworthy.
In a letter seen by The Telegraph signed by Simon Broad, the customer operations manager at Okehampton depot, it said delivery staff were 'unable to deliver to the address safely… due to the condition of the access track'.
It went on to describe the track as a 'real health and safety concern', adding it presents the 'potential for an accident'.
The letter said that deliveries had been suspended with immediate effect until 'modifications or improvements' to the road are carried out, and 'the risks have been sufficiently removed or mitigated'.
It directed Bennallick to the depot in Okehampton – open between 8am and 10am on Monday to Friday, or 8am to 12pm on Saturdays – to collect her post. If letters were not picked up within 18 days, they would be returned to the sender, Royal Mail's letter explained.
Bennallick says her condition makes it difficult to collect the post, rather than have it delivered to her door, given issues with finding parking and having to queue – all without the certainty there are even any letters waiting for her. 'Despite having MS, I don't have a blue badge,' she says.
A neighbour of Bennallick, who did not wish to be named, says Royal Mail's decision has forced him to resort to buying a large personal post-box for £80, which will be stationed at the end of the lane for deliveries.'I completely sympathise with my neighbour, but I do also understand Royal Mail's point of view,' he says. 'The road is poor, and my local taxi driver has also stopped coming down it.'A spokesman for Royal Mail said: 'Deliveries were suspended for four properties due to concerns from the local team about the poor quality of the private road leading to them. We have spoken to Mrs Bennallick and provided her with a solution.'
But the residents of Essworthy are far from alone in their struggles, it seems, with other areas in the region reporting delivery issues.
'We have a post 'shed' at the end of our drive as we live on a moor and Royal Mail will not deliver to us either,' a post on the Hatherleigh Facebook page reads.
'It works OK most of the time but we did have an item stolen once. We now get anything valuable delivered to a friend's house. Incidentally, Tesco delivers to our house every week and a baby oil tanker – it's just RM [Royal Mail] who won't deliver.'
Another, who lives 10 minutes' drive away in Exbourne, added: 'I have [also] had this issue. You need to travel along a lane that isn't in the best condition but by no means dangerous.
'I was told that if I didn't put a post box at the end of my lane I would no longer be able to have my mail delivered.'
The complaints come amid wider concerns over the company's standards. One outlet for such gripes is the Royal Mail Unofficial Complaints Group, another Facebook page. 'There have been several posts recently about rural areas no longer being served by RM [Royal Mail],' one recent post on the page read. 'The contract RM [Royal Mail] have is to deliver to all addresses for the same price.'
The plans put forward by Ofcom for scaled-back deliveries have attracted particular ire. The charity Age UK said many older people would view the proposals as 'just another staging post in the progressive decline of the post'.
The regulator and Royal Mail have been quick to defend themselves from such criticism.
Ofcom estimates that the move to stop delivering second-class post on alternate weekdays and Saturdays will enable Royal Mail to achieve annual net cost savings of between £250 million and £425 million, which 'could enable it to improve reliability and redeploy existing resources to growth areas such as parcels'.
Natalie Black, Ofcom's group director for networks and communications, says: 'The world has changed – we're sending a third of the letters we were 20 years ago.
'We need to reform the postal service to protect its future and ensure it delivers for the whole of the UK.'Emma Gilthorpe, Royal Mail's chief executive, says: 'Ofcom has recognised the urgent need for change so that the future of the universal service can be protected for all.
'Our proposal… is designed to preserve what matters most for our customers – maintaining a one-price-goes-anywhere service to 32 million UK addresses and first class deliveries six days a week.'Back in Essworthy, Bennallick is far from convinced. The service is failing, she says, and others will suffer yet.
'I just want to have my post delivered. I don't want help. I just want what I should rightly have,' says Bennallick.
'Put simply, this is rationalisation. They will cut out awkward deliveries, then only deliver second-class post half the week,' she adds. 'What will be next, and where does it leave old people in rural locations?'
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'We see in Ukraine how Russia delivers terror from above, so we will strengthen the shield that protects our skies,' Mr Rutte will argue at Chatham House think tank in London, after a meeting with Sir Keir Starmer. Mark Rutte, the secretary general of Nato, is about to deliver a speech at Chatham House in London, where he will argue for members to boost defence spending to counter the threat of Russia. You will be able to watch the speech live at the top of this page when it starts. The head of Nato will today announce that the military alliance needs to increase air and missile defence spending by 400 per cent. Mark Rutte, who is on a visit to London, has been pushing members to boost defence spending to 3.5 per cent of GDP, and a further 1.5 per cent security-related spending to meet Donald Trump's demand for a 5 per cent target. 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