Post office apologises over uncollected mail

Cyprus Post apologised to residents in Prodromi, Paphos on Thursday, after it was revealed that mail placed in a village letterbox was never picked up and sent to its destination.

Images had surfaced on social media of the letterbox in Prodromi, which contained dozens of letters left uncollected.

According to what the postal service has said there was a problem with the letterbox’s lock, and tape had been placed over the opening a few weeks ago, to stop people from dropping their letters there until the lock was fixed.

Speaking to CyBC, Postal Inspector Demetris Pantopolis said that the tape had been removed from the opening in the letterbox, and that for a few weeks, people kept depositing their mail there thinking it would be collected.

Pantopolis said that there were no letters in the box, when the tape was placed, but following the removal, around 50 to 60 letters and greeting cards amassed in the letterbox.

He added that the postal worker collecting the letters did not notice the tape had been removed and assumed letters were not being deposited in the box.

According to Pantopolis, the letters that were gathered in the box were around 2 to 3 weeks’ worth of mail.

Pantopolis said: “We were informed about the issue on Easter Monday, after images surfaced on social media.”

He added that the letters and greeting cards had since been collected and sent onwards, and that the lock on the letterboxbox has been fixed.

Pantopolis apologised to the public over the incident, as there was negligence on the part of the postal service to fix the problem with the letterbox.

The instructions the postal service has in cases where the lock is broken on a letterbox is to remedy the issue immediately, he added, saying that in this case it had not been done.