Postmen’s bikes banned due to health and safety risk

Health and safety anxieties will lead to postmen being forbidden to ride bicycles on their daily rounds.

Royal Mail’s field operations director Paul Tolhurst stated that bikes are no longer practical as postal workers are sometimes forced to carry over two stone at a time.

He blamed an increase in the posting of heavier items, such as books and DVDs.

The company currently has over 14,000 bikes, but fears over "long-term muscular and skeletal impact" mean they will all be replaced in the coming years as part of a £2 billion pound modernisation plan.

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Royal Mail is also promising a better Saturday service and a postal tracking system.

Mr Tolhurst also said that there had been more accidents involving cycling postmen carrying weighty bags on busy roads.

"It is a matter of safety," he added.

Universities and science secretary David Willetts has been campaigning for the Royal Mail to continue using bikes and commented that he was "quite disappointed" by the decision.

Posted by Hayley Edwards