Fairfield postal addresses are set to finally have ‘Stotfold’ taken off them – ending confusion relating to deliveries, police appeals and more.
The villagers of Fairfield, between Letchworth and Stotfold, are now receiving letters from Royal Mail asking them to ratify the change – which comes after campaigning by Councillor Steve Dixon, Fairfield Parish Council and North East Beds MP Alistair Burt.
The appending of ‘Stotfold’ to Fairfield addresses had long confused delivery drivers and other visitors, and also led to police appeal mix-ups.
A Fairfield Parish Council spokesman said: “Two major Fairfield incidents have been reported by the police as being in Stotfold, with officers appealing for help from Stotfold people.
“Discussions with the police have resulted in the comment that they can only change their system once the postal address is changed.
“In addition, Central Bedfordshire Council’s Highways system does not recognise Fairfield because of the main Royal Mail database.
“The consultation has been a hard-fought battle with Royal Mail, which only came to a conclusion after the intervention by our MP Alistair Burt – who escalated the matter to the highest level after it was repeatedly blocked.
“We would urge residents to accept this change as it will benefit Fairfield residents in a variety of ways, which in the future will become apparent to all.”
Mr Burt told the Comet that he was delighted by the success of what he called “a huge team effort with the Fairfield Parish team, Councillor Dixon and myself”.
He said: “They brought this to me in the summer of 2016. They had a very valid point which seemed to be being pushed round in circles by Royal Mail, in the first instance as there had to be several criteria met including ‘public demand’.
“There were some very real issues connected to this, not just post delivery. My staff and I were very pleased to get the Royal Mail public and parliamentary affairs team involved – and now the operational changes necessary have been made for the removal of ’Stotfold’ from the addresses.
“This now has to be ratified by the residents, so letters are arriving from Royal Mail. I very much hope everyone will take part in the exercise and get the address change finalised as soon as possible.”
A spokeswoman for Central Beds Council said that as soon as Royal Mail informed the authority that the change had been formalised, it would update its systems.
Royal Mail said that 1,100 properties were involved in its consultation, and that the change would go through so long as fewer than 20 per cent of those contacted objected before a deadline on October 2.
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