Deal to secure rural mail service

Residents in parts of east Cleveland who feared they would lose postal deliveries because of poor road access, have been assured they will continue.

Royal Mail warned some residents in Easington that health and safety fears meant deliveries would be suspended.

Now council bosses have brokered a deal which includes the revamp of 13 roads in the Scaling and Grinkle Lane areas.

Redcar and Cleveland Council and Royal Mail will monitor the situation over the coming months.

A special meeting of the council's overview and scrutiny committee was told by Royal Mail delivery sector manager Paul Dixon that deliveries would continue as long as it was safe to do so.

Site visit

Committee chairman Brian Briggs said: "I am very, very pleased at the outcome.

"All the issues have been resolved and deliveries to all the affected properties will continue.

"We will welcome Mr Dixon back in two or three months for a monitoring report."

The Council's cabinet member for transportation and planning, Mary Lanigan said: "We will be having a site visit to the areas next week, along with the householders, to ensure that if there are road repairs needed, they will be done under a health and safety remit and in a partnership agreement with Royal Mail."

Mr Dixon said: "I am hopeful that, by working together, we will be able to maintain deliveries to all our customers in the east Cleveland area."