§ Mr. Nallyasked the Assistant Postmaster-General the totals, for the latest available week, of postal packages received by post offices from football pool firms in the Dudley, Worcestershire, Wolverhampton, Birmingham and Manchester areas, respectively; and how such figures compare with the figures for the corresponding week of last year.
§ Mr. BurkeThe estimated comparative weekly totals posted by firms in the towns mentioned are as follow:
Week ending 1st February 1947. Week ending 2nd February 1946. Dudley, Worcestershire 750 Nil Wolverhampton 1,460 2,000 Birmingham 30,478 10,400 Manchester 3,000 3,000
§ Mr. Nallyasked the Assistant Postmaster-General what is the estimated weekly total of postal packages received by his Department from football pool firms and football pool forecasting organisations; the estimated weekly total of packages posted by the public addressed to such pool firms or forecasting agencies; and how such totals compare with the corresponding figures last year.
§ Mr. BurkeThe figures for football pool firms are as follow:
Present weekly postings by pool firms: 7,750,000; Weekly postings by pool firms in 1945–46 season: 2,250,000; Present weekly postings by clients: 6,000,000; Weekly postings by clients in 1945–46 season: 1,800,000.
I regret that no information is available or obtainable concerning postal packages posted by, or addressed to, football pool forecasting organisations.
§ Mr. Nallyasked the Assistant Postmaster-General if he will issue a detailed statement describing his Department's organisation for handling football pool traffic; and indicating to what extent such traffic affects normal postal services and the nature of any special postal facilities afforded to all or any football pool firms.
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§ Mr. BurkeThe promoters have, by arrangement with the Post Office, presorted, in postal address order, the addressograph plates which they use for addressing envelopes to their clients. When the envelopes are addressed from these plates they are kept in the same order to avoid a sorting process. In the case of the largest firms, the covers into which the coupons are to be placed are pre-franked (date stamped) by the Post Office in advance of addressing. This enables the work to be done at times convenient to the Post Office. In certain cases, Post Office stamping machines are installed on the firms' premises.
The completed items are tied up in bundles and labelled by the firms. Postal staff place the bundles in appropriate bags and despatch them to the offices of delivery. In transit the traffic is segregated from normal postal traffic and does not affect its delivery. Delivery of the pool correspondence is spread over the Friday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday following receipt.
Correspondence addressed to football pool firms is posted all over the country in pillar boxes along with the other postal traffic, and is dealt with in normal course, except on the heaviest posting days—Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays—when it is segregated from other traffic at the facing or first sorting stage, to ensure that other traffic is in no way adversely affected.
No special facilities are provided for football pool firms which are not available to other equally large users of the post.