Residents in shock as postal service is 'withdrawn'

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A LOCAL resident has said that he was shocked to learn that parts of Westbury do not receive a postal service when the Royal Mail sorting office in the town becomes too busy.

Mike Dyer, who lives in the Summer Road area, approached Westbury sorting office after experiencing ‘intermittent’ post deliveries and long periods of time with no deliveries at all in his area.

Mike says that staff at the Westbury sorting office explained that when they become ‘overwhelmed’ with post they implement a process called ‘mail latency’, which stops the delivery of post to certain areas in Westbury that have been labelled as ‘latency areas’.

Speaking to White Horse News, Mike said, “I was shocked! I hadn’t been receiving any mail over quite a period of time, or mail was arriving all at once on a Saturday – things I would get on a weekly basis like my Radio Times subscription and a photo order I made just didn’t show up.

“Also neighbours weren’t getting their mail and were missing out on important letters like hospital appointments.

“The guy at the sorting office was very frank with me and told me that they don’t deliver to certain areas when it gets busy and that I should make an official complaint.

“After showing him my ID, he returned from the back office with a big handful of mail for me – about 10 days’ worth!

“What about people’s hospital appointments, cheques or bills? At least if we knew this was happening, we could come and pick up our mail.

“I’m honestly shocked, I thought it was illegal to withhold someone’s mail, but the guy behind the counter said it wasn’t.”

White Horse News contacted Royal Mail about Mike’s experience at the Westbury sorting office and asked them to confirm if ‘mail latency’ is a process used by Royal Mail. White Horse News also asked how residents are informed when this process comes into action and how an area is chosen to be a ‘latency area’.

Failing to answer the questions directly, a Royal Mail spokesperson said, “We have been experiencing some periods of higher than average sick absence in the Westbury area recently, which has resulted in some intermittent disruption to our services.

“We would like to apologise to customers for any inconvenience. We are doing all we can to restore a high quality of service to our customers.

“Any customers who have concerns about their mail delivery should contact Royal Mail customer services via our website: http://www.royalmail.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;, on Twitter @RoyalMailHelp or by phone on 03457 740 740.”