Whilst Reading politicians have been concerned with local issues into the run up to the council elections we can reveal that Gareth Epps, the Liberal Democrat Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Reading East, has been pre-occupied with letter boxes.

We have discovered that Gareth has but his name down to a petition on the Downing Street Petition web site asking that letter boxes be:

• Located at a clear height
• Easy to post through
• Designed to allow leaflets to be posted without destroying them
• Designed to protect people's hands when posting
• Dog proof

The local Labour and Tory parties have sneered at what they say is Gareth's attention to trivial matters, but he told us: "Of course the Tory party don't think it's important. When was the last time they hand delivered a leaflet in Reading?"

The petition gathered a derisory 465 signatures.