The Uncollected

My last photo for June – and the strange separation between Post Office and Royal Mail.

Bushboy’s challenge is to post, unedited, the last photo you took in the month gone by and link it to his post, which you can find here. I was sure mine would be something edible from garden or allotment, or at least some lovely flowers but no. It’s cardboard: a package awaiting collection. I took the photo to show my friend what to look out for – and to mention that despite what it says on the box, it contained no items from Port Meirion.

The collection by Royal Mail didn’t happen, so I printed the labels myself and took it to the Delivery Office. I saved myself the embarrassment of being turned away at the Post Office as it has sunk in at last that this is a completely separate business. After 500 years of existence, Royal Mail is no longer owned by the State. Not even a little bit.

That they used to be properly integrated is obvious: the Post Office has a front entrance on the busy main street and the Delivery Office is directly behind. The connecting door through which the mailbags and packages pass may well be sealed up in time. Then Royal Mail will have to drive a van round to the front twice a day, while The Post Office will have to store all the items instead of sliding them through as and when. Storage space in the Post Office was unnecessary in the original design, so that should be fun at Christmas.

I don’t imagine the shareholders who own Royal Mail care much for these details. The Government website has a terse message: ‘Royal Mail has closed’, meaning that it’s no longer their business. But some of the people who work either side of that door remember what it was like in the good old ‘before’ times when things were better connected.