Local elections 2024: Sheffield man who paid £5 for unpaid postage 'angry' to find it was a Lib Dem leaflet

A Sheffield man has shared his anger after paying £5 in unpaid postage only to receive a political leaflet from his local Liberal Democrat campaigner.

Residents in Crookes have shared they received notes from Royal Mail explaining postage had not been paid on a delivery addressed to them. But upon paying to receive their delivery, they discovered a political letter from the Sheffield Liberal Democrat council candidate, Jordan Barry.

Richard Warwick, aged 38, said he was "angry" when he received the letter, adding: "It's an injustice that I have had to pay £5 for that when I didn't want it in the first place.

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"My wife and I were both awaiting packages from eBay and Etsy and I assumed it was some error from them so I paid and this is what came in the post... it feels like a fine."

Mr Warwick, who works for the NHS, also posted on a local Facebook community group, on which other residents responded to say they too had received an unpaid postage note. He told The Star he would be looking into if he could claim the money back in the coming weeks.

The letter has the name and photograph of Mr Barry at the top of the page, as well as additional details about his position as a "Liberal Democrat campaigner for Crookes and Crosspool".

Mr Barry, who has been selected as the local party's candidate in Crookes and Crosspool in the upcoming local elections on May 2, 2024, came third in the 2023 ballot where he ran in the Burngreave ward.

A spokesperson for the Sheffield Liberal Democrats said: "Our addressed letters and leaflets are delivered by volunteers. It is not clear how this letter made its way into the mail system. We apologise to the resident for the inconvenience that has been caused. If the resident involved contacts us we can agree together how to resolve this."

"The people involved should get their money back"

Dominic Townsend, a history student at the University of Sheffield, is another Crookes resident who is frustrated by the amount of campaign material parties put through residents' letterboxes in the run up to election time.

He said: "It's just a bit silly really isn't it? We get enough of this post as it is and there are loads of leaflets coming through.

"One or two is fine and I would accept that, but when it gets to the stage that you're getting loads of them over and over again, it just gets annoying and you're less likely to vote for those people."

Dominic said he has been very frustrated hearing how his neighbours had ended up paying to receive the letters, adding that "the people involved should get their money back".