The month of December can be an expensive one and for a handful of Highgate Village residents the financial toll of Christmas this year was unexpectedly hiked by their local MP.

Staff at Highgate Post Office had the unenviable task of contacting around 80 residents shortly before Christmas to inform them they were the recipients of correspondence from Hornsey and Wood Green MP Lynne Featherstone which was sent without stamps attached.

The letters, meant for homes in Cholmeley Park, Cholmeley Crescent and Causton Road, each required a £1.53 payment for postage from Ms Featherstone’s constituents before they could be retrieved from the post office.

The Ham&High understands around half the scorned constituents trod the arduous ascent up Archway Road to the post office to pay for Ms Featherstone’s message, while the other half abandoned the Liberal Democrat’s literature altogether.

Inside the envelope, readers found a colourful update on Ms Featherstone’s work tackling violence against women as a coalition government minister.

One onlooker told the Ham&High: “Lynne does tend to think that because she’s an MP she’s entitled to free postage but that ended a long time ago.

“The only time they are allowed that is a couple of weeks before the election when they are sending out their blurbs.”

A spokesman for Ms Featherstone blamed the saga on an error from a “well-known” delivery company.

She said: “We send out a huge volume of letters to keep in touch with residents. We hired a well-known company to post these particular letters for us.

“Unfortunately they seem to have missed a batch of letters in the Highgate area, and put them in the post without stamps. We are sending any affected residents the £1.53 – and will reclaim the costs ourselves from the delivery company.”

What an unfortunate Christmas surprise.