By Patrick Sawer and Miles Erwin
Last Updated: 1:03am GMT 28/10/2007
The Royal Mail was last night accused of hoarding thousands of parcels as a way of masking the real effect of the post strike.
Evidence has been uncovered that parcels and other items of mail which should have been delivered when the strikes came to an end two weeks ago have instead been stored in a warehouse in north London.
Mail backlog, revealed: a secret parcel hoardTwo weeks after the strike ended, temporary staff are struggling to clear thousands of parcels
It is claimed that the parcels were collected from depots around London and the south-east and taken to the warehouse in Barnet. The Royal Mail last night admitted it had opened the warehouse facility in order to cope with the strike.
Royal Mail managers said they have not fully cleared the backlog of 120 million items created by the stoppages and it is thought there are still around 25 million items stuck in the system.
Small businesses have complained that many of their customers have yet to receive goods and orders which they requested before members of the Communications Workers Union (CWU) staged two 48-hour strikes earlier this month.
It has now emerged that some of the parcels and letters caught up in the dispute have been kept at the secret warehouse to await collection and delivery.
Trevor Angel, owner of Essex jewellery distributor Bubbles Jewels, whose business relies solely on the Royal Mail, said he learned of the warehouse when he tried to trace 156 parcels he had dispatched in early October.
Mr Angel said: "When I asked the Royal Mail about the parcels, I was told by a manager at Southend that an artic lorry had picked up all their parcel post, as well as parcels from the rest of the London area and south-east, and then circled the M25 looking for a warehouse in which to dump them. That's where they still are."
Like many other small business owners who rely on the Royal Mail Mr Angel — who estimates he lost £10,000 worth of business because of the strike — fears his most loyal customers will now go elsewhere.
The Sunday Telegraph tracked down the warehouse where Mr Angel's deliveries have been temporarily stored and found thousands of parcels stacked haphazardly, still awaiting delivery.
Several boxes, despite being labelled "Handle With Care", were balanced precariously on top of sacks and mail bags. Dozens of temporary workers could be seen struggling to make an impression on the huge mountain of parcels at the anonymous building — the size of a football pitch — housed on an industrial estate.
Some of the backlog is the result of wildcat strikes by Royal Mail workers in east London following the official end of the dispute on October 12.
Unofficial stoppages in east and central London, Glasgow, Merseyside and Lancashire created a further headache for managers.
The Royal Mail denied the parcels were being deliberately hoarded, but admitted some of the backlog created by the strike had yet to be delivered.
A spokesman said: "The backlog in the Barnet warehouse was a result of the unofficial strikes in east London and has been largely cleared.
The backlog from the national strikes has also largely been cleared. We are doing all we can to clear it.
"We always set up temporary facilities in this period, but the Barnet one came into operation earlier because of the strike."
Some postal workers have complained that the backlog could have been cleared faster had the Royal Mail been willing to pay overtime, but the company said it refused to effectively reward strikers for causing the delays.
The deal that ended the dispute included a backdated lump sum of £175, a 2.5 per cent rise for the rest of this financial year and 4.2 per cent for next year.
Postwatch said it had been assured the backlog was "manageable", but a spokesman for the watchdog added: "The Royal Mail told us last week the backlog had come down to around 25 million. There will be isolated incidents of mail taking longer to be delivered.
"It is a tense situation at the moment, with strikers working alongside non-strikers and the peace deal still having to be ratified by the CWU membership."
The strikes are estimated to have cost the London economy alone more than £300 million. A survey for the British Chambers of Commerce found that more than half the small companies surveyed were now more likely to use alternative services to reduce the risk of further disruption.
Matthew Knowles, a spokesman for the Federation of Small Businesses, said 94 per cent of small companies rely on the Royal Mail to deliver their goods and receive payment. Some firms have gone without any cash flow for weeks as cheques languished in the backlog, he said, adding: "It would have cost millions of pounds. I'm sure some have gone under. It would have been the straw that broke the camel's back."
Small Business owner Trevor Angel was stunned to discover the parcels he had carefully sent to customers were piling up in a north London warehouse.
He realised his business was going to suffer as a result of the postal dispute as soon as dozens of customers began calling to complain that their orders had yet to arrive.
Two weeks after the dispute was settled, many are still waiting for the items they had ordered from his online company Bubble Jewels.
Mr Angel, 52, is completely reliant on the Royal Mail, having set up his firm five years ago to import designer jewellery from Denmark and sell it via his website.
When the official strikes came to an end on October 12, he dispatched 156 parcels to customers across Britain, having held on to the orders until the end of the dispute.
But Mr Angel (above) learned that instead of being delivered, they had been taken to the warehouse in Barnet, where they were still languishing last night. He now fears that other small firms may have suffered a similar fate.
When his customers complained to the Royal Mail it referred them back to Mr Angel, saying that since the dispute was over they ought to seek compensation from him.
Mr Angel said: "I tell my customers Royal Mail has still got packages from the strike, but because they're getting mail through the door again they don't believe me. That kind of information is totally misleading for the customer and is very damaging to my company's credibility."
He estimates the dispute has cost him about £10,000 and hit customer loyalty. The former driving instructor, from Shoeburyness, Essex, said: "We rely totally on Royal Mail. They messed up big time and an apology would be nice. But as it is, the posties go on strike and I have to pay for it."
