High levels of sickness blamed for disruption to postal services in Lichfield and Burntwood

High levels of staff sickness have been to blame for delays in postal services across Lichfield and Burntwood, postal chiefs have said.

Cllr Sue Woodward raised concerns over disruption to postal services, with residents highlighting late or inconsistent deliveries in recent weeks.

The Royal Mail has now contacted the Burntwood Town Council leader to explain why some services may have been disrupted – and assure residents that delivery is now back to normal.

In a letter to Cllr Woodward, they said:

“Of the huge volumes of letters and packets we handle, very few encounter a problem along the way – but we take every single failure seriously.

“The delivery office manager has advised us that due to Covid-19 there has been a large amount of sickness which has been causing delivery issues. However, they are now back on track and everything is being delivered daily.

“Please be assured that we take letting our customers down seriously and will use the information you provided to make further improvements.”

Royal Mail spokesperson

Cllr Woodward told Lichfield Live she was pleased to have answers to the concerns of local people – but insisted it was important the situation was monitored going forward.

“I hope this provides some reassurance to local residents.

“They’ve clearly had problems with sickness absence and I hope our posties and their families are now on the mend. 

“It’s something though that we need to keep an eye on

“In some cases, such as hospital appointments, it might be wise to let the administrators know about recent delivery problems and check that you haven’t missed anything. “

Cllr Sue Woodward, Burntwood Town Council