After months of later and later deliveries, I complained on March 3 as my post had arrived at 4.10pm on February 29. I was told that 2pm was the deadline and anything after that was unacceptable.
That was nine weeks ago.
Not once has my post arrived before 2pm since then. Quite often it has been after 3pm and last Wednesday it was 4.15pm.
I don't care if my postman wears regulation uniform or not . . . he can wear a kilt, a kaftan, a suit of armour or nothing at all! Just let me get my post before 2pm.
On March 3 I was told the relevant department would be told of my complaint. Obviously they were too busy with other more pressing problems than getting the post delivered!
Shirley Watson,
Chiltern Avenue, Northampton.

I too was victim of over-reaction
I refer to your front page story on Wednesday, April 30, re the police being called to confront a postman who was wearing the wrong type of shorts.
It would seem that both the police and the Royal Mail management have completely abandoned common sense.
Why didn't the police just tell the management to sort out their own problems? They then might have time to catch a few more criminals.
The Royal Mail should never have called the police and the police should have told them to sort it out themselves. They've both lost the plot.
The same thing happened to me last year . . . management ineptitude and police complicity.
The Royal & Derngate called the police because I was making a fuss about the dropping of stand-by tickets. What a stupid over-reaction. I'm a 74-year-old pensioner and hardly a threat to public order.
But then the police spent hours taking statements at the Royal, invited me to a basement cell and recorded a one-and-a-quarter hour interview, took fingerprints and a DNA swab and cautioned me for what they called harassment. Incredible!
But it seems no-one can apply common sense any more . . . they instantly yell for the police. And the police are happy to respond because it gives them one more cleared up "incident" towards their target for fighting crime.
So, the Royal Mail man in the wrong shorts and me being a nuisance in the Royal are now part of the national crime statistics. Two more "criminals" brought to justice . . . hurrah!
John Nicholls,
Five Acre Fold, Northampton.

Misbehaviour on the buses
M M Doyle (Viewpoint, May 3) brings attention to the problem of indirect abuse, suffered on local public transport, caused by mobile phone users (and in my experience, loud live conversations too, on the actual bus itself).
Decent people should not have to endure either dirty shoes on seats (criticise at your peril) or buses littered with rubbish (proud to say, I haven't dropped a piece of rubbish ever . . . it's the way you are brought up!). I've seen spitting and once reported human excrement to the driver.
Scores of plain-clothed marshals need to ride the transport network to issue on-the-spot fines, especially at school leaving time, until these morons learn lessons, to know they won't get away with it!
Due to New Labour endeavouring to drive motorists like myself off the road by increased costs and for a medical problem, I have recently used the buses more regularly to see loutish behaviour increase 10-fold in five years. It's high time it was stopped.
But more importantly, when alighting at Weston Favell Health Centre, I have had very narrow escapes.
A serious accident is waiting to happen, there or anywhere else. On two occasions the drivers of cars, with foreign-registered number plates, have failed to stop at the adjacent pedestrian crossing.
This practice is commonplace in European countries. I know from recent visits. However, these motorists need take special heed and respect our GB Highway Code before a innocent life is lost.
Keith Jackson,
Tavistock Close, Northampton.

Vote for people, not the party
The comments made in respect of the Lib Dems (Chronicle & Echo, May 1) demonstrate a degree of naivety that is truly astonishing.
Surely no-one seriously expects any political party to give credit to another political party?
What do you expect the opposition to do, sit in a corner sucking their thumbs?
Unfortunately, instead of mounting constructive arguments, the statements attributed to members of all three political parties frequently degenerate into insults of the Yah! Boo! and Sucks! variety, with the result that the first casualty is Truth.
All three of the major political parties in Northamptonshire go out of their way to bicker and back-stab one another, irrespective of issue, for a diet of gloss and spin is the nature of party politics.
Local government in both Northampton borough and across the county will remain in its dire and abysmal state until the electorate themselves wake up and start to vote for individual people and what they represent, not blindly following a party ticket.
I look forward to the next round of elections in the hope that true independents, as opposed to rejected and recycled party hacks, will have the opportunity to put an old fashioned thing called Integrity back into the governance of our local councils.
David Huffadine-Smith,
Duston Wildes, Northampton.

Where has our flats cash gone?
I am writing with reference to your article Drug litter is a risk to children of May 4 with regards to the comment made by Councillor Sally Beardsworth, the borough council's cabinet member for housing.
The councillor's response has in no way answered the questions being asked by residents on the Bouverie estate which are: "Why has the planned work to upgrade the blocks of flats by fitting a door entry security system been cancelled? And, what has happened to the funds (money provided by the Labour Government) and allocated prior to the Lib Dems taking control of the borough council?"
Is she saying that the money made available to carry out the work on the Bouverie estate was being spent the wrong way, in other words wasted?
Will Councillor Beardsworth tell the residents affected by her Lib Dem colleague's decision when they could expect the planned installation to commence?
For the past 11 years or more as a Northampton councillor, I and many others have had to sit and listen to Councillor Beardsworth in speech after speech tell us about her concerns for the elderly, the underprivileged, single parents, vulnerable children, the environment and many other things.
She is always quick to blame other people and other administrations for failing to act. Time and time again I admired her for her contribution to many debates.
However, now she has the opportunity to make things happen she cancelled it.
How disgraceful. Sally you are all hot air. Robbing Peter cunningly to pay for improvements in your backyard is disgusting and you know it. Shame on you!
The old, frail and vulnerable people on the Bouverie estate deserve better.
The children that you and your colleague's reckless decision have left exposed to the druggie-used needles are at risk, great risk, but why should you care?
You can always blame it on the county council or the Labour Government.
Councillor Winston Strachan,
St Crispin Ward, Northamptonshire County Council.