Campaign for Moorlands postcode hots up

The campaign for the Staffordshire Moorlands to get it's own 'SM' postcode has gathered pace after a council meeting took place on Saturday, the Sentinel reports today.

Council leader Sybil Ralphs told the meeting that both Staffordshire Police and Staffordshire Fire and Rescue Service were backing the campaign.

This follows one particularly worrying incident, during which firefighters got so confused by the postcode that they took almost 45 minutes to reach a house fire in Warslow, after heading towards Derby because of the village's Derbyshire postcode.

Councillor Ralphs said that the incident happened some time ago, and luckily the firefighters reached the property in time, but she claimed it illustrated the 'utter confusion' caused by having a number of postcodes in use throughout the district.

She said at the meeting: "The Moorlands accounts for 222 square miles of land. We account for 21% of the wonderful county of Staffordshire. We have 94,500 residents and 94 parish councils. We are not just and area between the Peak District and the Potteries."

She has now won the district council's formal support and now hopes to hold talks with Royal Mail bosses.

Do you support this campaign? Do you think that it is about time that the Moorlands was recognised in this way? Or do you think that the expense to individuals and businesses caused by a change would be too big to justify? Let us know.