A row has erupted between Morvern Community Council and the Royal Mail over a consultation to change local postal addresses from Morvern to Lochaline.
Many residents in Morvern recently received a letter from the Royal Mail, beginning: “Royal Mail has received a request from your Local Authority to replace the locality of Morvern with Lochaline in all postal addresses within said locality.
“The proposed change will have no impact on the delivery of your mail. It may indeed ease possible confusion for visitors to your property and companies making deliveries.
“If you object to Morvern being replaced with Lochaline in your postal address, please complete and return the enclosed card by Friday 5 January 2024.
“If fewer than 20 per cent of the affected addresses object to this change then we will go ahead, amend our database and confirm your new official postal address.
“If more than 20 per cent object we will hold a ballot of all affected addresses and ask you to vote on the change. If a ballot is held, the change will only be made if 50 per cent of those balloted respond and of these there is a simple majority in favour of the change.
“Your Chamber of Commerce and Community Council are also supportive of this change.”
However, Morvern Community Council says it was not asked, and, in fact, opposes the change. Its chairperson, Henriette Laidlaw, wrote to Royal Mail “to object to the statement in the letter, which says the ‘Community Council is supportive of this change’.
“We have no record of Morvern Community Council being consulted on the matter. Can you please refer to where and when this support was obtained, otherwise we would like you to correct this to the recipients of the original mail.
“In the letter you state that you are looking for 20 per cent objection at this juncture to stop the change and later will need a majority for you to change this. This leads to the following question, how many have you send out and to which postal codes, we would like to know what 20 per cent equals?
“I have copied this to our Lochaber Chamber of Commerce and Highland Council, too, as both are referred to in the letter as supporters.
“There are very strong feelings on Morvern to maintain Morvern in our address. We already suffer from confusion with Oban being listed on our postal address, with deliveries going to Oban and the NHS thinking we are in Oban, which can cause real issues in an emergency. Taking Morvern completely off will only increase that confusion. If anything remove Oban and replace with Morvern.”
A Morvern resident who received the letter, Iain Thornber, told us: “The placename ‘Morvern’ has been in use since before 1395 and on letters when mail deliveries began in the 1800s. It is essential for our history and education these ancient topographical Gaelic names are retained and kept in use.
“How dare Royal Mail seek to drop them, particularly at this busy time of the year when ballot papers are likely to be put aside or lost in transit amongst Christmas cards.
“Morvern and many other parish names in Argyll deserve to be kept. Imagine the furore there would be if Appin, Benderloch and some of the many historical villages around Loch Awe were to be tinkered with by Royal Mail?”
The Royal Mail did not respond by our deadline. A Highland Council spokesperson said: “The request was because current addresses were incorrect and contained the locality of Morvern instead of Lochaline. The change request was sent to Royal Mail on 12 June 2023.”