Royal Mail system cripples local mail on islands:Argyll

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A reader from Tiree – around four hours out in the Atlantic from the Argyll mainland – has discovered that the Royal Mail has quietly blocked the practical and efficient service adopted by the postal service on the island to deal with local-to-local mail.

This resident of the sunshine isle describes the way things have been, postally, on Tiree: ‘If you shop online, you don’t actually get next day deliveries. Everything is shipped out on either planes or ferries. Sometimes, if we are lucky, next day turns out to be a mere 2 days. Other times, it can be a week or more. We live with that. We understand it.

‘One awesome thing has always been the local post. This won’t matter much to those in the city, as your sorting offices are close by, but here it does matter.

‘For example – I posted a letter last week to a local business 4 miles down the road. On the envelope I wrote ‘local’. I put it in the post box. The post staff collect it and sort the contents of the letterbox into ‘local’ and other mail.

‘Local mail is franked on the island and then delivered. Everything destined for the mainland and beyond is flown to Glasgow.

‘Simple, easy, and much used. We pay for stamps like everyone else, but we know that on the island at least, there is a next day delivery. Our local post office staff and postmen are awesome.’

This utterly sensible system is now to be a thing of the past – for absolutely no good reason except bureaucratic constipation.

All local-to-local mail must now be sent to Glasgow to be franked before being sent back again to be delivered locally.

This is the stuff of comedy, isn’t it?

Now, when this islander send a lette to the same local business 4 miles down the road, it will:
be collected;
be flown to Glasgow – if and when weather permits;
be sorted with other local-to-local mail from the island and franked;
be flown back to Tiree – if and when the weather permits;
be delivered n the island.
Now that really is some service.

What’s the pay scale of the innovator who came up with this improvement?

The islander in question points out that this system ‘will seriously impact the local surgery and school as well as businesses.

‘Our postal services are often disrupted with travel and weather and this will be a serious blow to our local services.’

Of the introduction of this model in daftness, our reader writes: ‘It has been badly communicated, and as far as I can see makes little environmental, economic or logical sense.’

We challenge anyone to produce a defence of this nonsense that anyone still considered human might see to be an improved service to those living on Tiree.

We have asked the Royal mail for the logic behind the development and will publish the response when we get it.

Luckily email is a less tortuous business – which makes it self-mutiliating for the Royal Mail to cripple ist snail mail in favour of the electronic competition.

Local MSP’s response
Argyll & Bute MSP, Michael Russell, has asked Royal Mail to ‘think again’ about new arrangements which have removed all local franking and sorting on several islands in Argyll, with every item now being sent to Glasgow even if it has to return immediately for delivery.

Mr Russell says: ‘ A number of constituents on Mull and Tiree have already been in touch about these ludicrous new arrangements and I understand that they also apply to some other islands.

‘Up until now local mail for the island itself was locally sorted but now everything has to go to Glasgow, by ferry and even sometimes by air. It is then sorted and sent back.

‘This is not only environmentally daft, it will also lead to significant delays especially in winter when services can be disrupted by weather. In addition it will have implications for local employment.

‘Royal Mail constantly claim that they are improving their service to customers. This is clear proof that services are actually getting poorer. I have asked the company to cease this new arrangement immediately and return to the sensible local process that has operated well for generations.’