Mark had campaigned to persuade Royal Mail to restore postal deliveries, which had been suspended when Hovefields was partly occupied by illegal travellers. However following the clearance of the site by Basildon District Council (some moths before the much larger clearance operation at Dale Farm) Mark took up the cudgels on behalf of local residents, in order to try and persuade Royal Mail that it was now safe to recommence postal deliveries to the area. In this endeavour Mark also gained support the Wickford Neighbourhood Policing Team of Essex Police, who made plain to Royal Mail executives that the restoration of deliveries should be safe.
In order to press home the point, Mark lobbied the Chief Executive of Royal Mail, Moira Green, and dealt directly with representatives from her office, including the Head of Public Affairs, David Gold.
Following a visit to the site by Royal Mail officials and then a meeting with the residents, which Mark hosted at his constituency office in Rayleigh, Royal Mail consented to recommence deliveries, which started again shortly after Christmas.
Commenting on this, Mark Francois said:
“The residents of Hovefields have been without postal deliveries for far too long. I took up their cause with Royal Mail and I am pleased to see that common sense has now prevailed and that deliveries have been restored to my constituents in Hovefields. It used to be said that ‘the mail must always get through’, and I am pleased to see that in Hovefields this is now the case once again.”