People on the Rosneath Peninsula who miss the new morning post collection have been told there is a later alternative – on the far side of the Clyde.
The advice – which would involve crossing 1.7 miles of open water or making a 100-mile round trip by road – has been attacked as ‘ludicrous’ by an MSP.
It is the latest development in changes which saw latest collection times brought forward by up to six hours ‘to improve efficiency’.
The exact times vary, but in Kilcreggan a change from 3pm to 9am on weekdays, and from 10.15am to 7am on Saturdays, is typical.
Royal Mail said many post boxes ‘no longer cover their costs’ because of ‘a significant decline in letter volumes’, so postal staff would empty them on their morning rounds.
Initially the company said there would always be a later post box (after 4pm) within a mile of the ‘collection on delivery’ box.
But this policy has now disappeared from its website, and notices on post boxes advise the public that later collections are available not in Kilcreggan or Rosneath, but in Gourock at 4pm and Helensburgh – up to 18 miles away by road – at 6pm.
Jackie Baillie, Dumbarton constituency MSP, said: “It is ludicrous to suggest the residents of Kilcreggan and Cove can just nip across to Gourock or into Helensburgh to post their mail if they don’t make the 9am cut-off or indeed 7am on a Saturday.
“Clearly the people who have made these decisions have no local knowledge and are just looking at the area as the crow flies. They don’t seem to understand there is a large expanse of water in the way or a lengthy journey into Helensburgh.
“Royal Mail needs to carry out an urgent review of this and make sure residents on the peninsula have a postal service that is fit for purpose.”
And Argyll and Bute Council’s provost Maurice Corry said: “It would be best for our residents to have the timings coordinated more effectively and not have this timings’ anomaly which seems to be what is happening and certainly is not at all satisfactory as it stands.”
A Royal Mail spokesperson said: “The system automatically picks the closest late box as the crow flies, which in most cases is OK, but in this case it is not.
“The local team are looking into this to see if it can be amended.
“Helensburgh is only referenced as the very latest collection point in the area.”
In recent years post offices have been closed down in Clynder and Cove, as well as on Helensburgh’s Churchill estate.
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