Fresh plea to Royal Mail after more mix-ups between Wem and Shrewsbury addresses

People in Wem continue to claim their post has not arrived because of confusion caused by Shrewsbury being in addresses for the town for many years.

Now Pauline Dee, Shropshire councillor for Wem, has called for pressure to be put back on Royal Mail to get Shrewsbury removed from the town's official postal address.

Royal Mail today said it will investigate any specific problems which are brought to its attention.

In 2015 it wrote to Wem Town Council to say it will not consider a request to change or remove a post town.

In the letter, the council was told that "a postal address is not intended to describe a precise geographical or administrative area".

It said it is a sorting and routing instruction to postal staff which enables mail to reach its destination from any part of the country.

It added that changes could not be made unless an area is being re-coded for operational reasons.

But Councillor Dee said residents are still contacting her with issues.

"The problem has never gone away," she said.

"The man who brought the issue up originally kept getting post delivered that was not meant for him – but was meant for an address in Shrewsbury.

"He even had the bailiffs turned up to his house because they got the wrong address.

"It has been causing a huge mix-up for years. It is ridiculous.

"I am still getting contact from lots of people about the problem.

"We need this sorting and we will keep putting pressure on Royal Mail until something gets done."

In another incident, one resident arrived home to find a large double wardrobe outside their house which had been intended for an address in Shrewsbury.

But because their address had "Shrewsbury" in it the wardrobe had been delivered to the wrong location.

The issue will be discussed at Wem Town Council's meeting on Thursday.

Royal Mail spokesman Rhys Jones said: "We are disappointed to hear of the issues customers in Wem have experienced with their mail and will of course investigate any specific problems which are brought to our attention.

"Our advice to all customers is to always use the postcode to ensure we can route and deliver mail efficiently."

North Shropshire MP Owen Paterson has previously called the inclusion of Shrewsbury "nonsense", but his own appeal to Royal Mail was also turned down.

Wem Civic Society has also previously reignited the campaign.