Royal Mail has been blasted over a second-class delivery service – with a councillor writing to chief executives to complain about delivery chaos.
Councillor Henry Vann, leader of the Bedford Borough Liberal Democrats, wrote to bosses demanding urgent action over the ‘shambolic’ service for the MK40 – 45 postcodes, which he says has left residents missing out on vital correspondence.
Royal Mail’s website points to resourcing issues, with a spokesperson blaming “a higher than usual number of vacancies” for the problems.
The website adds: “In those cases, we will rotate deliveries to minimise the delay to individual customers. We also provide targeted support to those offices to address their challenges and restore our service to the high standard our customers would normally receive.”
But cllr Vann said: “The state of our postal service in Bedford is completely shambolic. It is the worst I have ever seen it.
"We have residents concerned about missing critical NHS appointments and small businesses losing revenue because letters are sitting in sorting offices for weeks.
“Residents have told me about a whole week or more’s worth of mail arriving at once. Letters are not prioritised, meaning that vital medical correspondence, bills and other important notifications are at risk. In some cases, going missing.
"This is to say nothing of cards and messages from friends and family.”
He added: “Royal Mail’s own statistics prove this is a systemic management failure and our posties need backup. Blaming staff shortages while refusing to invest in permanent local solutions is a slap in the face to our community. We need an immediate end to ‘rotating deliveries’ and a clear timeline for when a reliable service will return.”
One postie, who asked to remain anonymous, told Bedford Today they had "never seen the office in the state it's in at the moment".
They said: "Deliveries are failing on a daily basis, we’re told to cover deliveries within our time frame with absolutely no chance of completing them, resulting in having to bring back mail - first class letters, packages, tracked items etc, as we’re told that they can’t pay us overtime to do the work.
"One lady on my delivery opened a letter in front of me from the NHS regarding an appointment, only to find that she’d missed it because of the failure of Bedford delivery office managers to get the mail out regularly."
They added: "We have limited vans that we need to be able to do our jobs, then we’re told that if one of our vehicles is off the road for whatever reason, that we have to share a van with another driver which means that we can’t cover the areas we need to cover in our allotted delivery times, so consequently the mail comes back to the office.
"The place is in turmoil and has been for years. I despair these days; all I want to do is to give my customers the service that’s been paid for, but they’re not getting regularly."
A Royal Mail spokesperson said: “We know how important it is that customers receive their mail when expected and take concerns about deliveries very seriously.
“The local delivery office is currently managing a higher than usual number of vacancies. Mail continues to be delivered across Bedford every day, although at times some routes may experience a delay. When this happens, any outstanding mail is prioritised and delivered as quickly as possible.
“Nationally, deliveries are improving. Our latest results show 85 per cent of First Class letters are delivered the next working day, with 98.1 per cent delivered within three days. Across all letter products, 93 per cent are delivered on time and more than 99 per cent within a week.”