Falkland Islanders get own postcode

THE Falkland Islands are to get their own postcode - because items of mail keep turning up thousands of miles away in Falkirk instead.

The Foreign Office yesterday confirmed the move in a bid to prevent thousands of bills, parcels and postcards ending up in Scotland.

Islanders hope it will stop their correspondence going via places like the Faroe Islands, Iceland and the most popular destinations for lost letters - Falkirk in Stirlingshire or the village of Falkland, in Fife.

Falklands councillor Richard Cockwell said: "I posted some postcards in Chile in March and they arrived this week - that’s because people don’t know where the Falklands are.

"I’ve had my mail come back from the Pacific and quite often it goes up to Scotland because they think it’s meant for Fife."

The need for a postcode was reinforced by the emergence of the internet as Falklanders found they were excluded from shopping on many websites.

A Falklands spokeswoman said: "One reason behind the postcode was that it’s very difficult to order anything over the Internet without one. When you say you don’t have a postcode companies, particularly American ones, don’t believe you. If you don’t have a postcode then your order is rejected.

"It also made things like reservations and hotel bookings difficult for people from the Falkland Islands."

Next on the list for Falklanders hoping to improve island communications is the international telephone system.

Mr Cockwell said: "The major issue we have is our telephone code, which is 00500.

"There are some places in the world which don’t have the links in for it. That includes parts of the United States and South America."