The Royal Mail sorting office located on the Old Tempo Road, Enniskillen.
FERMANAGH’S new ‘road name and postcode’ form of address is failing to work as far as Royal Mail is concerned.
It was revealed at this week’s meeting of Fermanagh District Council, the body with the official authority to name addresses, that only 30 per cent of residents in the county have been using their official address.
Senior personnel from Royal Mail, who met with councillors last month, reported that, in the absence of a correct address, the sorting of mail had to be completed manually.
Conversely, some householders who are using the correct form, are coming up against a brick wall when they try to order items online.
One young man told the Herald that the problem was affecting people in his postcode area.
But, not being able to purchase or do a transaction on line, might not be the only problem, some householders have fallen foul of TV Licensing and, could get a doorstep visit even though they may have paid their licence.
This week, TV Licensing said it was aware of a small number of homes which may be covered by a valid TV Licence, but have not been matched to a licensed address on the TV Licensing database.
“We have launched a postal campaign will ask these home owners to confirm their licence number and address in order to match old details with new.
Deborah King, its spokesman said: “We’ve been working with the Royal Mail over the past year. Almost all new addresses are now correctly matched on our database.
“We’ll be mailing unlicensed addresses across the county and would ask residents to get in touch to ensure our records are up to date.”
In the past, householders could simply ring up the Town Hall and ask for the accepted form of their address.
However, those days are now gone.
Under Data Protection legislation, the electoral register that contains citizens’ correct addresses is no longer kept in the Townhall.
A spokesman explained: “You can’t look it up, only the person who wants to know if they are on it can look it up themselves by contacting the electoral office, or they can give their details to the electoral office and they may be able to look it up for them.
“You can only look it up for yourself.”
The electoral office number is – 028 90 446650.
Meanwhile, some Fermanagh councillors have suggested that the best way to deal with incorrect addresses was to amend the postcodes for the areas experiencing problems.
Morag Turnball, the deputy head of external relations with the Royal Mail Group, undertook to forward that suggestion. However, she felt that the idea might not be workable without substantial evidence to reflect problems.
It was then agreed that details of problems in delays with postal deliveries should be submitted to the council’s director of regulatory service who, in turn, would send them on Royal Mail.
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