CUSTOMERS have called for the Royal Mail to take action to prevent items disappearing in the post after a mailbag was stolen.

Christmas cards, a letter and statements are some of the items lost after a large satchel was stolen from a drop-off point at a home in Weybourne on December 10.

Before Christmas a survey by industry watchdog Postwatch found a third of packages too big to fit through letterboxes were often left on doorsteps or in driveways.

Residents living in Brook Avenue claim this is the second time post has been stolen in the area in five months.

They say mailbags delivered by the Royal Mail vans were left hidden on doorsteps for their postman to collect.

A letter from Iain Thomson, manager of Royal Mail’s Farnham delivery office, was sent to residents apologising for the inconvenience after “a theft took place from the postman engaged in delivering mail to addresses in the locality”.

A woman, who did not want to be identified, did not receive £40 of Christmas cards she had ordered and paid for, and her husband nearly paid a surcharge for a bill he did not receive.

She said: “I feel very let down by them (Royal Mail). They have apologised but there is no mention of compensation. You trust the Royal Mail when you send items. Now I am nervous to use the Royal Mail to send or buy mail order items. I hope they get to the bottom of this.”

She said this was not the first time post had gone missing.

She said: “My understanding is that the postman left his bag in a neighbour’s porch and it went missing.

“This is the second time it has happened in five months.”

David Cornish, another neighbour, said it was time the Royal Mail did something to prevent it happening again.

He said. “It was OK the first time but when it happened twice it annoyed me.

“We strongly believe they should take whatever action is necessary to make sure it does not happen again. If it does, then that’s really not on.”

Others in the street put the mishap down to a sign of the times rather than incompetence.

One man said the postman left mail hidden on his porch for nearly a decade until recent thefts put a stop to it.

He said: “We would keep two large satchels here. They were very heavy. A delivery van delivered them and the postman would pick them up on his bike. It saved him riding all the way back to Farnham with a very heavy satchel.”

Paul Whewell said his wife had not received a letter from a friend who had to send it again. “We were slightly concerned we might have lost some mail, but we did not notice anything of particular value missing,” he said.

In some areas post delivery workers use a secure box, requiring planning permission, to collect mail during a round.

A spokeswoman confirmed Royal Mail was investigating a recent spate of thefts in the Farnham area.

She said: “Security people have been working in the area.

“We monitor them (drop-off points) and change the drop-off point by finding other places.”

She said drop-off points were secure places, such as a shop or locked resident’s garage.

A spokeswoman for Surrey Police said a mailbag for post in Parklands, Rowan Close and Weybourne Road went missing from the back of a property in Woodlands Avenue between 9am and 9.45am on December 10. She said Royal Mail usually took the lead role in incidents where post went missing.

Picture: Devastation: Tidal waves wash through houses in Sri Lanka