THE LETTER BOX STUDY GROUP assisted Royal Mail designating boxes suitable for sending Covid-19 testing kits through the post. Boxes had to conform to certain parameters including, most obviously, the size of the aperture.

Alerting the public to the Priority Postboxes, Royal Mail said: “We are a key partner for government’s coronavirus testing programme. We are collecting completed test kits from priority postboxes or from homes as part of the government programme. We are also collecting samples from more than 30 regional testing sites at the end of every day and delivering them to designated testing labs first thing the next morning.”

It went on to say: “If you have received a testing kit, please follow the instructions on the kit. You may be asked to post your sample in one of our 30,000 specially selected Royal Mail priority postboxes. You can find your nearest priority postbox on the Royal Mail app and website. If you have any questions, please contact the number in the instructions.”

Andrew W Young, our Technology Officer, commented on the LBSG’s role in the designations in the autumn Newsletter (178). He wrote: “Apart from the obvious social good, it was a fascinating exercise that demonstrated the enormous power of the LBSG Directory and how it can . . . produce the most useful and authoritative information. No other organisation can provide the data and the detail . . . about UK letter boxes that we can offer; thanks to our Members’ survey and box reports over the last 40 years.”

He added: “We didn’t cure Covid. But we did do our bit using all the information and equipment that . . . was readily at our disposal. We will probably never know the extent to which we assisted . . . We hope we helped in some way.”

Andrew R Young, our chairman, said: “It’s clear from how Royal Mail interact with the LBSG that they view us as a professional body which operates accordingly, rather than a bunch of anoraks with an obsessive interest in their postboxes!”