Ernie Clark. Hilperton Division, Wiltshire Council.

Contingency plans are in place at Bradley Road.
The Communications Workers Union (CWU) has announced two 48 hour strikes from lunchtime on Thursday 4 October to lunchtime on Saturday 6 October, and from the early hours of Monday 8 October to early hours Wednesday 10 October.

This will be followed by an unspecified programme of weekly strikes, starting w/c 15 October until the dispute is resolved.

The strike action means no mail will be collected from the District Council offices until Wednesday 10 October. This will directly effect the issue of benefit cheques and refund cheques.

Anyone expecting to receive such payment on Monday 8 October can arrange to collect their cheque directly from the District Council offices in Trowbridge. To make such an arrangement, call the Council on 01225 776655 x264 after 9.30am on Monday morning. Only the named recipient can collect a cheque, and photo ID (such as driving licence or passport) must be shown.

All council tax and business rates payments must be made as usual; however, allowance will be made in cases where the strike action is seen to have had an effect.

The strike action will also effect mail leaving the Council, with no collections being made until 10 October.

Revenues and benefits manager Shirley Sanchez said: "We will do everything we can to minimise the impact of this action on our customers, but there will undoubtedly be problems. I would ask people to please bear with us - if you have any specific concerns, we have a helpline available during office hours, which is 01225 776655 x264."