I think this is absolutely appalling!
When Mrs Odd One and I got our licences back in the early eighties, we went up to Kingsway as the office opened, gave them the stuff, went off for a wander around London for a few hours & picked them up again after lunch. With a bit of energy, we could have nipped back to Denham in time for a flight the same day (if we hadn't had a celebratory bottle of wine at lunch)
I even managed to get mine done over the counter when I moved up to a blue one (back to yukky brown again, now).
Now it takes 3 weeks. That seems completely unaceptable to me. What is there to do? Tot up the hours in your log book? I can't believe they check up with the examiner to see if you really did your papers properly or that you actually visited the airfields on your qualifying x-country.
I know many people can't get there in person, but surely the post could turn it around in 72 hours...
Cheers,
The Odd One