WORRIED about postal strikes? Want to make sure your Christmas cards reach your loved ones on time?

Look no further than the Scout Post, which will be operating across southern Oxfordshire this Christmas, hand-delivering your local mail for between 15p and 20p per card.

Local postage schemes will be run in Didcot, Abingdon, Wantage and Wallingford – although post cannot be transferred across the different areas.

In Didcot, the 23rd Didcot Sea Scouts will have post boxes in Cargo, Tesco and Tesco Express, Co-op in Lostock Place and Wantage Road, Willowbrook Sports Centre, Barnes Close Community Centre, Clothes for Children, Lloyds, The Wave, K&K News, Wilkinson’s, and Savages in Blewbury.

Other post boxes will be set up in Harwell, Chilton and Hagbourne. The last post will be collected on Thursday, December 17, at 5pm. Each card will cost 15p.

In Abingdon, Scouts and Guides will collect mail from The Shoe Shop of Abingdon, The Clarks Shop, Charity Cards in the Guildhall, Goff’s Newsagents, Martins Newsagents at Peachcroft and Gainsborough Green, The Fone Box, and Radley Village Store.

Cards will also be collected from All Saints Church, the Baptist Church, St Edmunds Church, Christ Church, St Michael’s Church, Trinity Church and St Helen’s Church Centre.

Postage costs 15p per card. Collections run until December 14.

For more information, call 01235 520832 Wantage & Grove Scouts will have post boxes in Barnards Way Post Office, Broadway Motors, Geoffrey Bailey Shoes, Sainsbury’s, Stead & Simpson, the Vale and Downland Museum, Topsport, Mably Way Surgery, the Co-op and Smiths DIY.

Post boxes will be open from today to Saturday, December 19. Cards, which can only be delivered to Wantage and Grove, cost 20p per card.

In Wallingford, post boxes opened on Saturday with the first sort on Friday. The boxes will be removed on Friday, December 18.

They have been installed at KP Stationers, Petits, Feet First, House of Cards, Londis in Sinodun Road, and Wallingford Hospital.

Delivery costs are 20p per card.

Cards posted in Wallingford can be delivered to Aston Tirrold, Aston Upthorpe, Benson, Berinsfield, Berrick Salome, Brightwell-cum-Sotwell, Burcot, Cholsey, Clifton Hampden, Crowmarsh, Dorchester, Ewelme, Little Wittenham, Long Wittenham, Mongewell, Moulsford, North Moreton, North Stoke, Preston Crowmarsh, RAF Benson, Roke, Shillingford, South Moreton, Wallingford and Warborough.

* Other scouting groups in the county are welcome to call the Oxford Mail to publicise their Christmas collections.

Call 01865 425444.