Letter boxes trap more than politicians’ fingers

LETTER boxes have an importance not often attributed to them. I know because for my pending third election campaign, I have learned a lot about letter boxes.

There is an amazing variety of boxes and an equally bewildering array of brushes and yokes that folk fit on the inside to keep out draughts and to amputate the fingers of post workers and politicians’ fingers.

I have just come back from a merry jaunt around an estate in Waterford city. This estate is idiosyncratic because many of the front doors are really at the back, if you know what I mean. What a waste of time for those who deliver mail.

I have done a little research on the subject of letter boxes and I have found that up to 27% of your heat can be lost through them. An Post delivers to roughly 1.5 million households in the state and each spends approximately €2,000 a year on heating.

Now – if you estimate conservatively even – taking that there are one million door-mounted letterboxes and the spend on fuel is a mere €1,000, and just 10% of heat is lost through these boxes, the sums tell you these openings are costing us €100m per annum – or enough to build 25 new primary schools, for example.

They also waste valuable working time for An Post.

A simple solution would be to outlaw them. Farmers and rural dwellers have been doing without them for years, placing a stand-alone box at their roadside gate. Small measure, big saving.

Cllr Joe Conway

‘An Druimín’

Roselawn

Tramore

Co Waterford