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David's a First Class Postie!

STRANRAER POSTIE, David McHaffie has won the Scottish regional heat for Royal Mail's First Class People Awards for going that extra mile for his customers.

Royal Mail called on customers across Scotland to nominate their local postmen and women - who are the "unsung heroes". David, who has been a postman for 37 years, fought off fierce competition to win.

His nomination stemmed from receiving a letter of thanks signed by 90 of his grateful customers. A petition containing the signatures was sent to Royal Mail delivery manager in Stranraer, David Allison.

Postman David is well known in Portlogan as he collects newspapers everyday from a shop in Stranraer and delivers them to most of the houses as there is no shop in the village and the nearest one is seven miles away. He also collects prescriptions for elderly people when he finishes his run and delivers them the next morning along with the mail.

He knows everyone in the area and if someone is out when he tries to deliver a parcel he takes it to other relations or neighbours to stop the people having to travel the 12 miles to the delivery office in Stranraer to collect the item. Manager David Allison said:

"It has been a great privilege to work with David over the years. He sees his job not just as delivering the mail but providing a personal service to his own customers. He is very well thought of by both his work colleagues and his customers - in fact I believe this Christmas he was carrying around more presents from customers than Santa Claus!"