A 90-year-old man is demanding that the collection time from the postbox outside his house be restored.

Patrick O’Keeffe has complained after collections were changed from 4.15pm to 9am.

“Our last post is now at 9am, which is ridiculous,” said Mr O’Keeffe, of Turners Avenue, Tenterden.

“It means you now can’t write a letter or card and post it that day.

“Our postbox is just a few steps from our house and is very widely used – we always saw people going to it about 4pm to catch the post.

“This is now the first post of the day not the last – it is a joke.”

Royal Mail says that 45,000 to 50,000 postboxes around the country now have an earlier collection time because the boxes are not used enough.

The mail is now collected by postmen and women on their rounds.

Mr O’Keeffe, who lives with his wife, Peggy, 93, is also concerned about the security of the box, which is on the corner of Turners Avenue and St Benets Way.

“It does get very full before collection time and now people can put their hands in and remove the post at night when it will be getting full,” he said.

“We have to fight this. It came out of the blue.

“The collection needs to be restored to a reasonable time for everyone, which is late afternoon.”

Borough and town councillor Paul Clokie is backing Mr O’Keeffe.
“A 9am collection is unreasonable,” he said. “Noon or early afternoon would be more reasonable and that is what we should press for.

“A lot of old people live in Turners Avenue and won’t want to put a cheque in the post if it is going to sit in the box all day and night.”

Royal Mail spokesman Sally Hopkins said it announced last August that it planned to change the collection times of some postboxes across the UK.

“Rather than decommission uneconomic low-use postboxes, we aim to improve the efficiency of our arrangements, with the mail picked up by the postman or woman as part of their delivery round.

“We would like to reassure customers in Tenterden that we will retain a high level of access to late collection posting facilities [4pm or later].
“Postboxes further than half a mile from a late-posting facility are not included as part of these changes.”

The last collection time from the box outside the old post office in Ashford Road is 5.30pm, or 11.30am on Saturdays, and from outside the Gateway in Manor Row, it is 5.15pm, or 11.15am Saturdays.