IN need of a post code, I inquired at the Post Office and Royal Mail office in Accrington.

In both cases, I was sympathetically given phone numbers to ring (at cost).

It is odd that the Royal Mail spends vast amounts of money to get us to use post codes but charge us, indirectly, for the information.

However, at this time of year when Christmas cards are being posted, all is not lost.

Accrington Library's reference department - and, I assume, all others - will provide the information free of charge.

So it's ten out of ten for the county council and none out of ten for the Royal Mail.

D PRATT, Plantation Street, Accrington.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.