Postbox Collection Times
Dear Sir or Madam,
Previous Freedom of Information Act requests have been made to Royal Mail to provide a list of postboxes (http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/lo...) and their collection times (http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/la...).
However, the response to the collection times request was unsatisfactory - providing only 50% of the expected data, as evidenced by its associated comments.
I have tried to contact the original requester to get them to resolve the missing data, but have not heard from them.
I am therefore asking that you please complete publication of the set of collection times in totality, with a minimum expected record count of 116,000.
Yours faithfully,
Peter Chamberlin BSc.
Dear Mr Chamberlin
Thank you for your request for information received on 03/08/2009, which
we are considering under the Freedom of Information Act. Under the Act
you should expect a reply from us to be sent by 31/08/2009, which is
twenty working days from receipt of your request.
If for any reason we are unable to provide you with a full response within
that time, we will contact you explaining the reasons for this and giving
a revised date by which we will reply.
If in the mean time you have any questions or would like to contact us
about your request, please contact us by telephone 01252 806513 or
alternatively email or write to us at the address below. Please be
assured that we are giving this our attention and will get back to you
shortly.
Yours sincerely
John Cere
[1][Royal Mail Group request email]
Freedom of Information Unit
PO Box 341, ALDERSHOT, GU11 1WW
Royal Mail is a trading name of Royal Mail Group Ltd. Registered in
England and Wales.
Registered number 4138203. Registered office at 148 Old Street, LONDON
EC1V 9HQ
References
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1. mailto:[Royal Mail Group request email]
Dear Mr Chamberlin
I am writing in response to your email dated 2^nd August 2009 requesting a
list of Postboxes and their collection times
Your request for information has now been considered under the terms of
the Freedom of Information Act and I am pleased to attach the relevant
information.
I hope this information meets your requirements. However, if for any
reason you are not satisfied with this response, you do have the right to
request a review. If you wish to do so please set out in writing your
grounds of appeal and send to the Head of Information Compliance, Royal
Mail Group, Company Secretary's Office, 100 Victoria Embankment, LONDON,
EC4Y 0HQ. An internal panel will then review the decision, and you will be
advised of the outcome.
If, having requested an internal review by Royal Mail, you are still not
satisfied with our response you also have a right of appeal to the
Information Commissioner at:
Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
Telephone: 01625 545 700
www.informationcommissioner.gov.uk
Yours sincerely
John Cere
Freedom of Information Case Officer
[1][Royal Mail Group request email]
References
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1. mailto:[Royal Mail Group request email]
Dear John Cere,
Thank you for providing the requested information in a timely fashion.
To further assist, could you please describe the purpose and difference between the "TT-SUN-1" and "SUN TIME" fields?
I observe that they have the following frequencies:
Both fields unset = 3,804
Only "TT-SUN-1" set = 12,062
Only "SUN TIME" set = 93,630
Both fields set = 6,349
- Same times = 5,361
- Differing times = 988
The instances where both times have been set are a little puzzling without context.
Yours sincerely,
Peter Chamberlin BSc.
Dear Chamberlin
Thank you for your request for information received on 10/08/2009, which
we are considering under the Freedom of Information Act. Under the Act
you should expect a reply from us to be sent by 08/09/2009, which is
twenty working days from receipt of your request.
If for any reason we are unable to provide you with a full response within
that time, we will contact you explaining the reasons for this and giving
a revised date by which we will reply.
If in the mean time you have any questions or would like to contact us
about your request, please contact us by telephone 01252 806513 or
alternatively email or write to us at the address below. Please be
assured that we are giving this our attention and will get back to you
shortly.
Yours sincerely
John Cere
[1][Royal Mail Group request email]
Freedom of Information Unit
PO Box 341, ALDERSHOT, GU11 1WW
Royal Mail is a trading name of Royal Mail Group Ltd. Registered in
England and Wales.
Registered number 4138203. Registered office at 148 Old Street, LONDON
EC1V 9HQ
References
Visible links
1. mailto:[Royal Mail Group request email]
Peter Chamberlin left an annotation ()
A neatened, tab-delimited representation of this data is available at http://regionaltrafic.co.uk/postboxes.zip (2 MB)
Matthew left an annotation ()
My site at http://www.dracos.co.uk/play/locating-po... now includes any new boxes and collection times from this dataset, has updated any differing data to match, and has marked as gone any box missing. Thanks for making the request, Peter :)
Jonathan Gray left an annotation ()
I've blogged about this request at:
http://blog.okfn.org/2009/08/28/wheres-m...
I've also added this and other relevant data to:
http://ckan.net/tag/read/postboxes
Dear Mr Chamberlin
I am writing in response to your email received on 7^th August 2009
requesting clarification on the data contained within Posting Box location
file. You asked us to describe the purpose and difference between the
"TT-SUN-1" and "SUN TIME" fields.
Both of these fields contain old data which related to past Sunday
Collection times. The 'TT-SUN-1' field showed collection times for the
postbox listed on that row of the table. The 'SUN TIME' field showed the
collection time for an alternative local Sunday Collection - this time
would have been displayed on the collection plate of the postbox along
with the location of the alternative collection point.
I hope this suitably answers your enquiry, if you have any further
questions please do contact us.
Yours sincerely
John Cere
Freedom of Information Case Officer
[Royal Mail Group request email]
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Peter Chamberlin left an annotation ()
I believe the following statement from Royal Mail explains the difference:
"Sunday collections will cease from 28th October 2007 throughout the UK. This was agreed with the Regulator and is part of Royal Mail's continued drive to reduce costs.
Currently we collect from 115,000 postboxes Monday to Saturday and from only 18,000 postboxes on a Sunday. Sunday postings are very low, but add a huge amount of cost to the business.
As Sunday and Bank Holiday collections are not part of the Universal Service Obligation, there are no implications for quality as a result of our proposals."
As such the "SUN TIME" field is likely the collection times used prior to Sunday 28th October 2007, and the "TT-SUN-1" field the collection times used since - mainly from Post Offices or their nearby postboxes.