ROYAL Mail has pledged to fix the major service issues which have seen Malvern residents waiting days for urgent post.
The management denied that first class mail was being held back in Malvern and said that second class deliveries were being delayed by an average of one day to reach people’s homes.
Before Christmas the Royal Mail blamed staff absence and unprecedented levels of parcel delivery on postal service issues but it claimed that local post is now being delivered according to its Ofcom targets.
The management said that some delays were as a result of organisations using alternative post providers to send bulk mail which could result in delays reaching the Royal Mail delivery system.
West Worcestershire MP Dame Harriett Baldwin visited Great Malvern sorting office to discuss the issues.
Dame Harriett said: “I wanted to say thanks to the posties who are doing their best to get our post to us on time and got a detailed briefing on how the local post system was working across West Worcestershire.
“The Pershore mail system seems to be working well but the Malvern and Tenbury rounds have been affected by staff illness resulting in management having to delay rounds to provide staff cover.
“The Royal Mail team is also recruiting more staff and it blamed an impasse with the post workers union which is preventing it being able to move to a sustainable business model.
“The evidence in my postbag is that people are still seeing delays, and it seems to me that the management is saying that often bulk post is getting delayed before it even reaches their sorting office.
“Combined with a decline in people using post and the higher cost of posting letters means that there is less traffic through the system which is resulting in people getting fewer letters.
“But I have urged the local management to act to win back the confidence of local people and communicate better about the challenges it is facing to get a daily delivery service across West Worcestershire.”