TORFAEN’S older people champion, Cllr Lewis Jones, is to write to Royal Mail backing a petition to get them to replace a post box in Abersychan.

At a meeting of full council in Pontypool’s Civic Centre last week the council received a petition on behalf of residents in Abersychan fighting to have the post box on Manor House road replaced.

The post box was in the wall of a private home, but the owner no longer wanted it on the land.

Ward councillors Gwyneira Clark, Giles Davies and Wayne Tomlinson helped launched the petition which secured 120 signatures in a week.

Royal Mail wrote to Pontypool Community Council saying: “Faced with falling volumes of social mail as well as increasingly tough trading conditions, Royal Mail must constantly review its operational efficiency.

“As a business we aim to have a post box within 500 metres of postal addresses.

There are three post boxes on Waterloo Road, High Street and at Abersychan Post Office which fall within distance.”

Residents have raised concerns that elderly people are struggling to use those facilities as it would involve walking up a steep hill.

On receipt of the petition, council voted unanimously in favour of Cllr Jones, Torfaen’s deputy leader, writing to the Royal Mail on its behalf to express their concerns.