Postal workers have been booted out the car park they have been using to sort mail since their office was closed down.
Aberdeenshire Council has banned Royal Mail staff from using a car park in Ballater on the grounds of health and safety.
Royal Mail last month closed their sorting office in the village, forcing workers to sort the mail and load their vans in a small public car park on Swann Place.
But residents reported their mail was being delivered soaking wet, and a petition was launched calling on Royal Mail to find a more suitable location for the mail to be processed in a more safe and secure way.
Now the local authority has confirmed Royal Mail had been using the car park without permission, and that they will no longer be able to do so.
Yesterday, the staff set up in Aboyne – loading their vans in Station Square on the street outside the sorting office.
Councillor Geva Blackett – who set up the petition – said it was still not a suitable spot for the workers.
“They were seen in the Station Square car park as that is where the Aboyne sorting office is, but this is equally a busy car park and is frankly just a joke,” she said.
“A week ago this was about our posties and our mail, now it’s apparent that it is much bigger as similar manoeuvres are being deployed in other rural areas.
“Post had still not arrived at 10.10am, despite a number of vans being seen hours prior in the car park in Aboyne.”
Supporters of the petition, which now has nearly 400 signatures, also voiced their concerns about the system.
Mary Keekie, of Ballater, wrote: “I can’t believe our posties are having to contend with this ridiculous way of working when they have recently gone above and beyond the call of duty after the flooding in our village.
“Ballater has had more than its fair share of bad luck and now this kind of incompetence heaped on top by Royal Mail, we just can’t let it happen.”
Catherine Hay, also from Ballater, added: “Perhaps the managers should come out in the middle of winter to see just how effective their new system is?”
An Aberdeenshire Council spokeswoman said: “We have been in discussions with Royal Mail regarding their use of the publicly owned car park in Ballater.
“We have asked for Royal Mail to provide us with the risk assessment that they have undertaken and assurances that safe systems of working are in place. Until we have received these documents the council will be unable to give Royal Mail permission to use any of our car parks.
“The council would also stress the safety of the public as being of paramount importance as this is a public car park and not a depot.
“It may be, given sufficient information, that a mutually acceptable solution can be found.”
A Royal Mail spokeswoman said: “We are liaising with the council on this matter. In the meantime, we will continue to provide our usual service to our customers in Ballater.”
Aberdeenshire West MSP Alexander Burnett said he had spoken with a director at Royal Mail, and believed a solution to the issue was “easily attainable”.
He added: “We also need to apply some common sense here and it is clear the change in arrangements needs to be addressed.”
Mrs Blackett said: “The council is renowned for upholding health and safety standards to the highest level and clearly what was happening in the Ballater car park was not acceptable to anyone.
“I have the highest admiration for our post workers and I do not like to see their employer putting them in this situation.”
To view the petition, visit www.change.org/p/royal-mail-from-the-ballater-crathie-braemar-communities-to-royal-mail or pop into the deli on Bridge Street or Alistair Cassie’s electrical shop.
