A stroll through a pretty English village reveals charm, character and colour.

The splash of red from an old-fashioned post box set into the rustic brick of a country cottage often rounds off the rural idyll.

So shame on the Royal Mail for wanting to commit an act of corporate vandalism by asking to remove the box mounted in the wall of the Post Office at lovely Wheldrake outside York.

Wheldrake is a particularly attractive example of a village which has retained its character. How dare the Royal Mail consider such action. It would be like plucking out a clean, white incisor from a perfect smile.

These lovely little post boxes have become a symbol of Englishness like the old red telephone boxes, cricket on the village green, cucumber sandwiches and bowler hats.

Wheldrake Post Office is a listed building and the post box is an integral part of that building. City of York Council must reject the application to remove the box when the issue comes before its planning committee on Thursday.

see NEWS 'Planners to give post box the stamp of approval'

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.