Postmen and women are being 'abused and threatened' by some customers while delivering mail and parcel in the Helston and Lizard area.
This is the feedback received by West Cornwall’s MP Andrew George, who says he was left “shocked” by what he had been told during a visit to Helston’s Royal Mail sorting office this morning (Monday).
He also hailed the “heroic” efforts of the staff on the ground, who he said were working in “dreadful and stressful circumstances” – adding that they “should be praised rather than criticised by local customers.”
Mr George was following up on a letter sent to Royal Mail chief Alistair Cochrane, highlighting that the Helston and Lizard’s TR12 and TR13 postcodes are “among the worst in the country for delivery failures”.
In the letter, dated February 16, Mr George outlined a continuing pattern of late deliveries affecting constituents, including missed medical appointments, fines for unavoidable late payments, and disruption to local businesses.
After publication of the letter, Mr George was invited to visit Helston’s sorting office to hear about the day-to-day challenges that posties on the ground face.
He said he had been told that some delivery staff had been abused and threatened by customers locally when they have been out delivering mail and parcels.
Mr George also claimed that the team had been “failed” by remote senior managers, and were working on reduced staff, with 11 members of staff currently out of action.
Following the visit, Mr George said: “Our postal delivery staff are working heroically in spite of dreadful and stressful circumstances, because remote senior managers have failed to give them the support and fellow members of staff they desperately need to maintain service standards, and to cope with the enormous challenges that they have faced including since Storm Goretti.
“My impression is that local sorting offices have been disempowered by an overcentralised and top-heavy management system which seeks to micromanage the service from remote offices which don’t understand the local circumstances in which frontline staff are operating.
“The Helston office has eight staff on sick leave and three on maternity leave, but have not been given sufficient back-up to deal with the inevitability that staff levels will ebb and flow because of the inevitability of circumstances like this.”
He said this is why he took the complaints of local people, including frontline staff, to Royal Mail’s interim CEO Alistair Cochrane, and had called on Ministers to intervene and “address the serious problems in Royal Mail, which are not the cause of the frontline staff who should be praised rather than criticised by local customers.”
Mr George met with frontline staff, managers and trade union representatives during his visit to the sorting office, where he witnessed the sheer volume of outgoing mail to deliver across Helston and surrounding areas.
Posties him about the impact that the significant increase in parcel deliveries, alongside staff absences and shortages, was having on their physical and mental wellbeing.
Mr George has tabled a Parliamentary Motion to highlight the ongoing crisis in Royal Mail deliveries across the country.
A Royal Mail spokesperson told the Packet: “We take claims of abuse against our Posties very seriously, the wellbeing of our colleagues is our highest priority and we will always take the necessary steps to ensure their safety at work.”
“We understand how frustrating it is when post does not arrive as expected and we want to reassure customers that the vast majority of mail is delivered as planned. We are supporting colleagues at Helston delivery office with additional Posties, given the higher-than-usual parcel volumes following the closure of another firm’s local depot.”
In his letter to Alistair Cochrane, interim CEO of Royal Mail Group, Mr George said he wrote “following a continuing and indeed worsening catalogue of Royal Mail failures across my constituency, but in particular a clear pattern emerging in the Helston and Lizard area (TR12 & TR13 postcodes).”
He added: “Please don’t misinterpret my letter as one critical of your frontline staff, for whom I have the greatest respect and admiration for the work and effort they make.
“It seems clear that there are not enough of them and that the service appears to be seriously overstretched.”
