Royal Mail puts Gloucester back on mail after complaints

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ROYAL Mail will put Gloucester back on millions of envelopes and parcels after complaints from a customer and the city’s council leader.

Roger Smith was incensed when he realised mail posted in Gloucester was being franked without the city’s name on the postmark - but Bristol, Bath and Taunton were.

“All letters posted in Gloucester are now franked “Royal Mail, Bath, Bristol, Taunton”,” said Mr Smith, of Nine Elms Road, Elmbridge.

“This is an enormous slight upon the city.

“Pressure should be brought to bear upon Royal Mail to at least acknowledge the city’s existence when franking our mail.”

He contacted Gloucester City Council leader Paul James, who complained to Royal Mail - which has relented.

Because Gloucester’s outgoing mail is franked at Bristol due to the forthcoming closure of the Eastern Avenue mail processing centre, it wasn’t being inked with a “Gloucester” postmark.

The postmark is an operational tool for processing and does not reflect where an item has been posted, Royal Mail said.

A Royal Mail spokesman said: “Mail emanating from the GL postcode area is now being processed in our Bristol mail centre, as part of our on-going business transformation programme.

“The machines which process our customers’ mail are currently being reprogrammed and updated to display the correct postmark - this process will take around four weeks.

“Once this work has been completed, all mail emanating from the GL postcode area will bear the ‘Bath, Bristol, Gloucester, Taunton’ postmark.

“We would like to apologise to any customers in Gloucester who were concerned by this omission.

“Any changes we may make are designed first and foremost to ensure that our customers receive their mail as efficiently and quickly as possible.”

Mr Smith was pleased with the outcome.

“It’s good news,” he said. “Missing Gloucester off was a slight on the city and I am glad it’s being rectified.

“It might seem like a little thing but Gloucester is a city and the postmark should reflect that.”

He thanked Mr James for taking up the issue.

“This might seem like a small matter and in some ways it is,” said Mr James. “But small things do add up and we need to take every opportunity to ensure Gloucester’s prominence is maintained and enhanced.

“I’m grateful to Roger for bringing this to my attention and to Royal Mail for reacting so positively.”