Undelivered post
SIR – My area of Surrey has received no post for nearly three weeks because our postman is off sick and there is no replacement. Royal Mail does not appear to be taking on extra Christmas staff to cope with the volume of post.
The company recently announced that it was handing £400 million in profits to its shareholders, but what about its workers and customers? And where will the backlog of post go if it is not delivered?
Elizabeth Ann Ray
Frimley Green, Surrey
Between the lines
SIR – When, 35 years ago, I received my elder son’s first school report (Letters, December 15), I found that his form teacher had got it spot on.
He had written: “Nicholas is a lively little boy who always keeps one on one’s toes.” This I interpreted as: “Nicholas is a mouthy little so-and-so who tries to teach me my job.”
No more needed to be said.
Janet Haines
Reading, Berkshire
Empty HMRC offices
SIR – My husband is 78. He should have retired from a trust that is attempting to finalise the will of a deceased client.
HMRC (Letters, December 15) says it has the papers but they are in a locked office which, at present, has no staff in it. No one has been to work there for nearly two years. How long will it be before my husband can fully retire?
Valerie Thompson
West Horsley, Surrey
SIR – Home-working is clearly harming HMRC. I recently discovered that my tax code had erroneously changed due to my salary being processed twice.
Who is going to address this huge problem?
Liz Beaumont
London SW19
The right to tow
SIR – In September, amid pressure to find more HGV drivers, the Department of Transport suspended the requirement for people towing trailers behind cars and light vans to take a test.
Those I had booked for employees were cancelled and we were assured that clarification would be issued granting blanket approval for the right to tow. Various pronouncement dates have since been and gone.
As a result of this indecision, I am unable to get my employees a licence to tow, and businesses and individuals that rely on being allowed to tow things such as caravans, boats and horse boxes are considerably worse off than we were before.
This is yet another government own goal.
Edward Barham
Rolvenden, Kent
Light hand of the law
SIR – I note that Avon and Somerset Police has adopted a technique called “non-visible policing” (report, December 15). I assume officers were trained in rural Suffolk, as the police have been invisible here for years.
C W Vaudrey
Alderton, Suffolk
Repatriated nuts
SIR – Before travelling to Brazil for Christmas 1978 I phoned to ask what I could bring. The answer was Brazil nuts (Letters, December 13), as they had all been exported.
Kath Hitchcock
Twickenham, Middlesex
