Part of Kent hit by Covid-19 Royal Mail delays

[POSTMAN]

https://www.kentonline.co.uk/medway/new ... ys-239217/

A woman who hasn't received any post for 10 days says she is worried others are missing important mail.

Jo Holden lives in the Brompton area of Gillingham and says she has not had any letters for more than a week.

Her husband did not get any birthday cards - even though she knows relatives sent them - and no other mail has dropped through her front door since December 4.

According to the Royal Mail website there are problems affecting the whole of the ME7 postcode area but very little information is given.

A statement online says there are "resourcing issues" in Gillingham, along with several others across the country.

Mrs Holden, 67, said: "I have checked the Royal Mail website daily and it’s the same message with only the date changing.

"I understand that a lot of companies are under pressure with staff shortages due to Covid 19 and it is a busy time for Royal Mail anyway but not to receive anything for 10 days is getting a bit much.

"This means people in ME7 are not receiving any bills, any test results they’re waiting for, letters from loved ones or indeed any Christmas cards.

"There could be poorer families waiting for bills so they can work out how much they have left to spend on Christmas presents or elderly people who don't go online hoping to hear from family."

Mrs Holden says she has been told the delays could continue for three or four weeks but Royal Mail was unable to confirm this.

A spokesman for Royal Mail said: "We understand that Medway currently has among the highest infection rates nationally. Despite the challenge this has brought the office in Gillingham, the office has been delivering each day. The office has been supplemented with extra resource to manage the increase in parcels and letters.

"If any customers have concerns about their post. They should contact our customer service team, who can investigate."

Residents in other parts of Kent have also reported delays with their post, with some saying a week's worth of letters will be delivered in one day.

Royal Mail said it has hired around 33,000 temporary workers ahead of Christmas but added: "Despite our best efforts and significant investment in extra resource, some customers may experience slightly longer delivery timescales than our usual service standards. This is due to the exceptionally high volumes we are seeing, and the impact of coronavirus-related measures we have put in place in local mail centres and delivery offices.

"In such cases, we always work hard to get back to providing our usual level of service as quickly as we can."

[deltaforce]

Sounds like they are not doing cut off rotation as they should be, so the same streets suffer non delivery’s more than others.

[fangrock]

The article is misleading as it says there is little information given but the reason people in the ME7 Gillingham area are not getting any mail is because they have had 2 cases of Covid 19 which means most of the staff are self isolating. At times there has only been between 5 and 10 staff in out of a total of roughly 40. They have no extra people coming in to help.
It is a total shambles with walks having at least 2 yorks full of packet bags and up 10 trays of mail to be prepped. Half the office came back the end of last week and the rest should be back the end of this week. I only just received my payslips for the last 2 weeks yesterday.
Before anyone asks I do not work there but was speaking to my postman about it as I work at the local MC.