Lawyers for the family(everything from property to divorce)

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www.thebishopcentre.co.ukBath Road • Taplow • Maidenhead • Berks • SL6 0NX

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FIRST CLASS FARCEMail finally arrives almost five years after being posted

RED-FACED Royal Mailbosses have apologisedafter delivering a bundle

of post nearly five years afterit was sent.

Gobsmacked Tim Duffysaid he was lost for wordsafter the mail sent in January2007 arrived on his doorstep.

It included a bank state-ment, letter from his mobilephone network and a copy ofthe Times Higher Educationsupplement.

The mail was posted whenTony Blair was still PrimeMinister and it was legal tosmoke in pubs and clubs.

The bizarre delivery onTuesday last week alsoincluded a letter of apologyfrom a senior boss at RoyalMail.

The dad-of-two, from BathRoad, Maidenhead, was tick-led by the whole episode.

The 56-year-old, who found-ed Thame-based internet con-ferencing company Meeting-Zone in 2002, said: “The post isa process and, like any otherprocess, these things do happen. The Royal Mail deliv-ers around 80 million items aday, so mistakes are bound tohappen.”

He added: “It got me think-ing about all the things thathave happened in communi-

cation over the last five years.“At the time, the iPhone

hadn’t even been invented, wedidn’t have Twitter andFacebook had about 20 mil-lion users, whereas it now has800 million.”

He added his wife Dorothy,who will now be able to readher delayed copy of theHigher Education Supple-ment for the first time, alsofound the situation extremelyfunny.

The Royal Mail said thepost was late after it had been‘allegedly withheld’.

Austin Stokes, the compa-ny’s delivery office managerfor the South-east, wrote: “Ican assure you that Royal

Mail takes these matters seri-ously and has a zero tolerancepolicy towards the mistreat-ment of mail in our care.”

Royal Mail spokeswomanValerie Antoine told theAdvertiser mail for 92addresses in Maidenhead wasrecently recovered. She addeda former employee of RoyalMail is being prosecuted forthe wilful delay of mail, acriminal offence.

She said: “We have writtento those customers apologis-ing for the disruption to theirmail deliveries and adviseanyone with any queriesabout their mail to contactour customer services teamon 08457 740740.”

By Alistair Walkernews@baylismedia.co.uk

FREE child’sticket tosee anyfamily filmSee P28

55p

W Telephone: 01628 680680 W email: news@baylismedia.co.uk W email: adverts@baylismedia.co.uk W Fax: 01628 682700

Incorporating the: Thursday, December 22, 2011

No.7511

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OUR New Year edi-tion will be pub-lished on Thursday,December 29.

Advertisers areadvised the copydeadline for all sec-tions is noon today(Thursday) with theexception of familya n n o u n c e m e n t s .The deadline forthese is noon onWednesday.

For the edition ofthe Advertiser pub-lished on January 5,the copy deadline forall sections isThursday, December29, except for familyannouncements, forwhich the deadlineis noon on Wednes-day, January 4.

Our Queen Streetoffice is now closedand will reopen at10am on Tuesday,January 3.

Our main officesin Bell Street willclose tomorrow(Friday) at 1pm andreopen at 9am onWednesday.

To contact a dutyreporter over theChristmas period,call 01628 680680 andfollow the newsroomoptions.

Holidaydeadlinesand hours

‘Murderkit killers’jailedSUNNINGDALE: Agang who went shop-ping for a murder kitin a hardware storebefore batteringtheir victim withhammers have beenjailed for a total of 98years.

The four menwere jailed for mur-dering ShaleemAmar on November17 last year.W Full story P16

Tradersfund busserviceBURNHAM: A newminibus service tak-ing people to theHigh Street waslaunched by theBurnham Commun-ity Association yes-terday (Thursday).

Burnham HighStreet Association iscontributing to therunning costs and itis hoped the servicewill provide a boostto village centreshops by bringing incustomers.W Full story P7

Great yearfor youthfootie clubWARGRAVE: An out-standing year hasbeen celebrated byWargrave WolvesFootball Club.

Players, parentsand supporters wereinvited to a partyafter training onSaturday to mark itsa c h i e v e m e n t s ,which included itsunder-nines teamremaining undefeat-ed and gaining plan-ning permission fortwo new pitches at isground.W Full story P23

Clean Thamesenergy movesa step closerWINDSOR: A giant 40-ton turbine waslowered into place atRomney Weir onTuesday.

It was the secondenormous screwinstalled as part of a£1.5m scheme toharness the power ofthe Thames andprovide clean energyfor Windsor Castle andfor up to 400 homesacross the town.

The hydro-powerproject will becomeoperational in January.W See P5 for the fullstory.

TURN OF THE SCREW:The huge turbine islifted into place atRomney Weir.Ref:112224-47

SNAIL MAIL: Tim Duffy withhis 2007 post delivered thisweek. Ref:112200-1