Mail Left Sitting In Penzance Over Christmas

[TrueBlueTerrier]

http://www.scillytoday.com/2012/12/29/m ... christmas/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The Royal Mail has confirmed that a consignment of mail and parcels destined for the mainland from Scilly was left sitting at Penzance for almost a week over Christmas without being collected.

It appears that the container, containing letters and perishable goods such as food and flowers, was not handed over to Royal Mail by the Steamship Company after it was unloaded from the Gry Maritha on Thursday 20th December. A second container in the same load was collected.

The consignment was finally collected on Wednesday 26th December.

Lindsay Rodger, the manager of St Mary’s Post Office, said she was first alerted that something was wrong late on Christmas Eve, after receiving complaints that mainland customers had not received their flower orders.

She said she reported this to Royal Mail at the first opportunity after the Christmas break, early on Wednesday morning, who then went to the quay to collect the container.

Lindsay says she feels let down by this incident as her and the Post Office staff will be the ones who have to deal with customer complaints and hand out reclaim forms.

Adrian Booth from the Royal Mail said his organisation is currently in the process of collecting reports to establish what went wrong. He added they’ll be undertaking a full review to ensure that this doesn't happen again in the future.

Nick Sanders, Commercial Manager with the Isles of Scilly Steamship Company, who run the contract for Royal Mail, said he didn’t have all the details yet and felt it was unwise to comment on an ongoing situation.

He said there will be an investigation and, once completed, he’ll report the findings back to Royal Mail.

Mail deliveries by air, to and from the islands, were recently disrupted by waterlogging at Land’s End airport, and transport by sea on the Gry Maritha is used as a contingency in bad weather.