IN THE peaceful hamlet of Cefn Minog (population: three), nobody will forget the day a clipboard-carrying health and safety inspector visited their mountainside.
Taking copious notes, he paced possible routes uphill before concluding that a postman would face deadly peril if he attempted to do the same. So ended the doorstep delivery service enjoyed throughout living memory by a pair of smallholdings on the foothills of the Black Mountains in Wales.
His report identifies three potential ways a postman would be killed if he tried to bring a sack of letters up the slope. The grassy pastures hide 23 hazards capable of inflicting major injury, six that could cause serious injury and two risking minor injury, the inspector concluded.
The report highlights the effect of safety culture on Britain’s traditions. The number of homes denied a daily doorstep delivery rose by 7 per cent last year to 2,812. More than a quarter are for health and safety reasons.
One of the deadliest obstacles, the inspector concluded, was a stile opposite Bettws Farm, near Abergavenny. Under the heading “harm potential”, the report states: “Slip/trip/fall. Muscle/tendon strains or broken bones, cuts, grazes, bruising. Hit by moving vehicle.” The “probable severity” was listed as “fatality”. William Jackson, 79, who has a pacemaker, was surprised. Across the country lane from the killer stile is the nearest postbox to Mr Jackson’s home. The “VR” insignia reminds passers-by that it has been there for more than a century, serving farmers through less risk-averse eras. Mr Jackson must plod down a meadow and negotiate the stile to post his letters.
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Mr Jackson remembers sending holiday postcards as a boy to his grandmother in the 1930s when she lived in the cottage at Upper Cefn Minog (1,200ft), now his home. The postman would prop his bicycle against a tree and walk up.
The Times visited the mountainside. First, Great Gott, a little farm inhabited by a couple of hens, an excitable puppy and a docile sheep.
The inspector identified this as a “working farmyard with a muddy surface, loose stones and a raised cobbled area”. The report warned users against “Collision with farm vehicles/machinery. Bumping into/striking against injuries”. Probable severity: “fatality”.
It was easy to find the way up the hill since markers identify it as a Brecon Beacons National Park path. Thousands of ramblers come here for the annual Three Peaks Trial. The next task, “opening gate and climbing very steep footpath”, was described as “very strenuous exercise — could bring on or worsen a medical condition”.
In a field of thistles laid a skull bleached white by wind and rain. Close inspection proved that the bones did not belong to a long-lost postman but to ancestors of the flock of sheep bleating close by.
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An alternative route would bring a post van along a track bordered by a dry-stone wall. This would cause “considerable jolting of driver at very low speed causing cumulative spinal or other back injuries”.
The driver “could lose control of vehicle — skid, steering thrown by protruding stones or side of ruts causing vehicle to strike a tree or a wall, or at worst roll over on adverse camber — striking against/bumping into injuries”. Risk: “fatality”.
David Davies, Monmouth MP, said: “This could become a mecca for dangerous sports enthusiasts. You can go bungee-jumping in New Zealand, sky-diving in California or climb a hill path in Monmouthshire.
“There is a strong suspicion that these reports are no more than a ruse to avoid making difficult deliveries using health and safety as an excuse.”
Postcomm, the regulator that compiled the report, said: “What looks like a quite pleasant country walk could be a lethal stroll for a postman on a dark winter morning. The health and safety assessor has to look on the bleak side.”
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The Royal Mail said: “We deliver to 27 million addresses in all weathers and the only time we can’t do that is when there is a real risk to our people.”
Peter Tyldesley, the national park’s countryside head, said: “This area is extremely popular with walkers. We have never been notified of any problems with this particular stile.”