THE mayor of Dubbo has criticised a proposal to establish a special community mail box in West Dubbo as a means of restoring postal delivery services to the area, saying it would be expensive and become a target for vandals.
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Councillor Mathew Dickerson's comments come as residents of about 200 households continue to collect their letters from the post office following Australia Post's decision to suspend mail delivery to a neighbourhood where posties were repeatedly attacked by children.
Executives from Australia Post headquarters in Melbourne travelled to Dubbo to hear council's input on possible solutions.
Australia Post is refusing to allow posties to return to the area until they feel it is safe, meanwhile parcel delivery services were also suspended this month after an attack on a contractor.
"We're not really responsible for Australia Post services but we were able to put some community concerns forward," Cr Dickerson said.
"We talked about some of the options that have been discussed before at the community crisis meeting where Australia Post spoke to the residents.
"These included early morning deliveries, police escorts and security cameras on the postie's bike.
"Australia Post heard what we had to say and was taking that back to the federal government.
"I told them they should take on board what local police say as they know what we are dealing with and are very good to work with."
Cr Dickerson said a suggestion by Australia Post to install a community cluster box that would allow residents to access their mail with a key or code was not a good idea.
"Firstly, it's still not delivering mail to each person's home," he said.
"The feedback I've heard from affected areas is that for some people, particularly the elderly and immobile, it's difficult to get past their front gate, so whether they have to travel 100 metres or 500 metres to get their mail is not the issue, outside their yard is still problematic.
"Secondly, a community mailbox would make a nice target for people engaged in antisocial behaviour, and realistically if it was going to be there it would need to be made of titanium.
"Thirdly, Australia Post believed Council should pay for the service, at an upfront cost of $20,000, and I said Dubbo City Council is not responsible for the mail, you'd have to pay for it yourself."
Cr Dickerson's preferred solution was for posties to deliver mail early in the morning.
"When you talk about crime patterns, the kids who are responsible for this kind of thing are out late at night and not up at seven o'clock in the morning," he said.
"I'd also suggest that even if we reduced the deliveries to three times per week, that police sometimes accompany the posties. Not every time, just random times."
Cr Dickerson repeated what he had told the Daily Liberal earlier this month.
"As I said to Australia Post, this isn't an Australia Post problem but a symptom of broader issues, there's no doubt about that," he said.
"The biggest frustration as mayor is that people come to me about issues in West Dubbo and they say fix the courts, lock up the kids, bring in income management, but unfortunately council doesn't have that power.
"I talk to our local MPs regularly but I can't send someone to jail or take away someone's Centrelink payment.
"I can be a community spokesperson but I don't have the power to enact that sort of change."