CWU in Sussex Housing Project Delivers Letter Box Win

Postal, Health & Safety


The CWU has won another local victory against the building of low-level letter boxes on a large Sussex housing development.

The story comes after the Vistry Group, who own Bovis Homes and Linden Homes – who are building 250 homes on Bexley-on-Hill’s “Gateway” development site.

After being alerted to the plans by a CWU health and safety rep, the Health, Safety and Environment department lobbied the house builders, local MPs and the local authority.

This lobbying eventually won the support of Rother District Council’s leaders, who imposed a ban on low-level letter boxes.

Greg Fitzgerald, the CEO of Vistry Group, confirmed that although the first batch of show houses on the site have low-level letter boxes, the company gave a commitment to support the CWU’s campaign request, meaning that the rest of the houses will be fitted with front doors with a standard mid-height letter box.

He added that the matter had been taken up seriously with local business unit partners, as well as the Bovis procurement and technical teams, who will guarantee that the CWU’s demand is considered in future discussions.

Additionally, the council have said that any future planning applications on low letterboxes must come before the council before being approved.

This is another win for the Low Level Letter Box Campaign, which seeks to ban and outlaw front doors with letterboxes below 70cm (2ft 3ins).

CWU National Health and Safety Officer Dave Joyce said “Ourselves and the local branch are delighted with the swift and positive response from the local councillors.

“On behalf of the CWU, we expressed our sincere thanks for that support, which is much appreciated.

“Presently, the union has to fight builders, landlords and developers case by case in difficult situations to convince them to follow the “non-mandatory EU Standard.”


For more details, please see LTB 083/2021