6th November 2007

Alan wins seven-year postal address battle.

Alan was in Oakham on Friday the 5th of November to hold a joint press conference with the Royal Mail.

After a seven year campaign, Rutland MP Alan Duncan has come to an agreement with the Royal Mail to correct the Postal Address file. Since Rutland was restored as an independent county back in 1997, the Royal Mail’s database has continued to list the postal county as Leicestershire.

This has meant any business mail, invoices or anything purchased online, would be addressed erroneously to Leicestershire, rather than Rutland. For example, because of this mistake on the dataset, a letter going to Oakham in Rutland would be addressed to Oakham, Leicestershire. There have even been cases of letters being addressed to Oakham, Rutland, Leicestershire, where the address absurdly included two counties. Such inaccuracies have been a source of local irritation.

Now the Royal Mail has finally agreed to correct the database after continued pressure from Alan. It is important to stress that this does not affect the postcode; this is purely about the county address and reflects Rutland’s proud independence. Rutland has been a county for 700 years, apart from a twenty year period between the mid-1970s and the mid-1990s when Rutland was absorbed by the county of Leicestershire, following local government reorganisation.

But since 1997, Rutland has been a county again and this is now correctly conveyed by the Royal Mail. Any child who wants to study English geography at school will now know that Rutland is not a part of Leicestershire, and Oakham is the county town. The Royal Mail has finally shown that it appreciates the needs of individuals and communities who value where they live and how it is described.

Pictured with Alan is the Area General Manager for Central and South Midlands, Michael Stockdale.