Fury at Chorley's 'Royal Snail' service

[Stormproof]

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Fury at Chorley's 'Royal Snail' service

Published Date: 04 December 2010
By Victoria Jayne
Royal Mail customers are being forced to wait for up to an hour in sub-zero temperatures to collect parcels from the Chorley's central delivery office - and the Christmas rush hasn't even properly started.
The Guardian has been inundated with stories from furious readers who have been caught up in delays following the introduction of new Royal Mail procedures aimed at making the system more efficient.

Despite the temperatures dropping below freezing, long queues of people - including pensioners and mums with young children - have been seen standing outside the delivery office to collect parcels.

In the past, householders have been advised to wait for two or three hours before going to collect an undelivered parcel but now they are being asked to wait for 24 hours before making the trip.

The depot has extended its hours in a bid to cope with the number of people collecting items but the small car park cannot cope with the number of vehicles visiting the Eastway site at any one time.

Drivers are often choosing to park on double-yellow lines on both sides of the road or in the industrial estate opposite.

Charlotte Wharton from the Harpers Lane area, doesn't drive a car so
she walked to the depot with her three-year-old daughter Abigail in her pram.

She had to wait for more than half an hour before even reaching the door of the office.

Charlotte said: "Abigail is freezing cold, we've been waiting for ages and the queue doesn't seem to be moving. I think they need to get more staff working to sort out the situation."

Keith Molloy from Blackburn Road in Chorley said: "For the second time within a week I stood in a queue with many other people for over an hour in freezing conditions. There were young children in tears because of the cold. I then discovered that the parcel had gone missing and I was unable to collect it."

Penny Smith from Buckshaw Village, who is a self-employed hand-made glass maker, was waiting to collect a delivery of equipment essential for her work. She said she was going to be more than an hour late for work due to the delays at the post office.

She added: "I've never seen it like this before, you think they could get some temporary workers to help out if staffing is the issue, there are plenty of people without a job who would jump at the chance of some seasonal work."

A spokesperson for Royal Mail said: "We apologise if some customers visiting Chorley Delivery Office have had to wait longer than expected to collect their parcels."

[TrueBlueTerrier]

"We apologise if some customers visiting Chorley Delivery Office have had to wait longer than expected to collect their parcels."

.......... but ....

Oh come on RM don't leave em hanging, what are you going to do.

Manager: I know we will make it more efficient and reduce the staff.

[human1]

I have been told that in Oxford ( Royal Mail Delivery Office in the Oxford city) ...average time to collect an notice left item from callers office .... is less than a minute ......and by the way this office gets arond 300 items notice left daily.