Royal Mail in denial about delivery problems, says Brighton councillor

[POSTMAN]

https://www.brightonandhovenews.org/202 ... ouncillor/

Royal Mail in denial about delivery problems, says councillor

Patients have missed hospital appointments, bank cards have failed to arrive and blood test results have been delayed because of problems with Royal Mail deliveries, according to Independent councillor Peter Atkinson.

He called on Royal Mail to “come clean” about the mail delivery service that it was currently offering and demanded urgent action to improve performance.

Councillor Atkinson, who represents North Portslade, said that the postal firm needed to improve management practices to enable it to retain staff.

He has been in dialogue with Royal Mail head office for almost two years about the lack of regular deliveries in his ward.

In correspondence last November, he even listed several examples of residents not receiving mail deliveries for weeks on end.

The reply that he received was, according to Councillor Atkinson, “staggering in its denial of the problem and breathtaking in its assertion that all mail was being delivered on time.”

In the most recent letter from the company, a senior manager at Royal Mail head office said: “I have been in contact with the customer operations manager at Portslade delivery office who has confirmed there are no current issues with the delivery of mail to North Portslade.

“The customer operations manager has confirmed that mail deliveries are taking place six days a week throughout or at peak periods when there is mail available to be delivered.

“I would like to reassure you that, should there be an occasion when a delivery round cannot be completed on a particular day, it will become the priority the following working day.”

Councillor Atkinson even carried out a survey of people living on a small estate off Fox Way including Langridge Drive, Shepherd Way, the Parks and Cornford Close.

He received a deluge of replies. Responses included

“Royal Mail head office saying that we get post delivered six days a week is simply and absolutely not true. We are lucky if we get genuine post (excluding fliers) once a fortnight.”
“Every eight to ten days, sometimes longer.”
“I would like to inform you that we have only been receiving our post once fortnightly here. Hope this helps provide evidence that Royal Mail is continuing to provide a poor service to this area.”
“I went down to the sorting office a few days ago and picked up 29 letters. Still only getting mail once every two weeks.”
“Every three weeks. Postie says he gets taken off post to do parcels.”
“I can confirm postal deliveries have been a dump of post every fortnight last few months of last year. It has been a number of years since we had post six days a week.”
Councillor Atkinson said: “I could go on and on but it is totally and absolutely clear that residents in North Portslade are not getting anywhere near the postal service that Royal Mail state. This would be ludicrous if it weren’t so significant.”

The problems caused by late deliveries or the failure to deliver at all include

Missed hospital appointments
Late medical information such as blood tests
Non-receipt of a speeding or parking fine resulting in an increased penalty
Non-receipt of goods resulting in an eventual doubling up of what was ordered
Missed birthday cards
Late or non-receipt of bank cards
Councillor Atkinson said: “I feel like a broken record. It’s patently obvious that Royal Mail are not providing anywhere near an acceptable service and haven’t been doing so for some years. Urgent remedial action is needed.

“Again, I would stress that this is not the fault of the ordinary ‘posties’ who are doing the best that they can in the circumstances. The service needs to be adequately staffed and well managed.”

[BenacreNick]

Could I suggest that Councillor Atkinson goes out on delivery with a post-person to see for himself ?

[SMS1969]

Royal Mail management lying, well, whatever next. Thing is absolutely nothing will be done about it.