Royal Mail undelivered mail LondonDerry became the focus of an investigation after hundreds of unopened letters were found in Londonderry and handed in from two separate locations. Mark H Durkan, the SDLP MLA, said the first bag came from Mobuoy Road and a second find was later brought to his office from the Victoria Road area.
By the time the mail reached his office, about 600 unopened letters had been handed over in total. Durkan said the contents included items that appeared to have come from health trusts, the Department for Work and Pensions and banks, raising the prospect that personal correspondence had been left on roadsides before it was recovered.
Mobuoy Road and Victoria Road
On Wednesday, a member of the public found a bag of unopened mail on Mobuoy Road and passed it on. Durkan said the person who opened it reacted “to his horror” after seeing what was inside. Police were then involved, and follow-up inquiries led to the discovery and seizure of a further quantity of mail.
On Thursday afternoon, more letters were handed into Durkan’s office from a different location. He said the second bag was found by a woman in the Victoria Road area and described it this way: “There’s a layby there and she had stopped to take a picture of a nice sunset yesterday evening. “She happened to see a bundle of mail sort of over the fence virtually on the bank of the river Foyle,”
Mark H Durkan
Durkan called what happened “inexcusable” and said there were other similar bags strewn around the area. He also said the discovery of large amounts of personal mail was “absolutely shocking” and added: “There must be a full investigation into this appalling situation, proper accountability.”
The detail that matters for recipients is practical: the mail was not lost in one isolated place, but found across multiple spots over two days, and it included correspondence that appeared to come from public bodies and financial institutions. That makes the recovery process the immediate issue for anyone waiting on letters in the area.
Royal Mail
Royal Mail said: “Our teams will work to recover and process the items so they can be returned to the postal network and delivered to customers.” That means the items handed in now have to be sorted back into the system before they can move toward delivery.
The unanswered question is who discarded the mail, and why so many letters were left on roadsides in Londonderry. For now, the route back is straightforward: recovery, processing and delivery, after a find that exposed mail in more than one place and left recipients waiting for post that should already have reached them.
