BECAUSE it is increasingly difficult for Sidmouth town councillors to hand deliver their annual report to residents, they have agreed to spend �260 in having the 6,447 copies delivered.

BECAUSE it is increasingly difficult for Sidmouth town councillors to hand deliver their annual report to residents, they have agreed to spend �260 in having the 6,447 copies delivered.

With some councillors having 400 copies of the report to deliver, others have more than double this to distribute.

Speaking at last week's meeting, Chairman, Councillor Tom Cox said: "It is increasingly more difficult to deliver and it has haunted me that we might get two disabled members in one ward.

"I did like the idea of being forced to go around and knock on doors and meet some people, but clearly we have reached a point where we need to regularise this. I think we should go ahead and do that."

He said Royal Mail had wanted an "extortionate" price for the job and the new quote from the distribution company was "one quarter of what we were being asked for four years ago."

Councillor Mary Jolly said: "Where I live we get missed with a lot of firms that do deliveries. Can we ask them to make sure they do every household?"

Councillors agreed to the quote, which equates to �40 per 1,000 reports delivered.