Home / Royal Mail / Royal Mail delays as Eccles neighbours forced to queue in the rain for post – and some still left empty-handed

Royal Mail delays as Eccles neighbours forced to queue in the rain for post – and some still left empty-handed

People in Eccles were forced to queue in the rain for up to 30 minutes to collect post – and some were still left empty-handed.

Photos showed a long line of customers outside the sorting office on Saturday.

Last week, the M.E.N reported that locals in Eccles hadn’t received any mail for up to a month in the lead-up to Christmas.

READ MORE:Floating Earth sculpture SINKS as extreme weather hits Salford Quays

The Royal Mail said the issue was down to staff shortages caused by sickness and isolation because of the Covid pandemic.

But one Salford councillor says he was told that the issue was due to a new system and was advised to visit his local sorting office every other day.

Eccles ward councillor Sharmina Augus said 25 residents took that advice but after waiting up to 30 minutes some went home empty-handed.

Cllr August told the M.E.N: “It was awful, it was a rainy day,

“Obviously people have better things to do on a Saturday morning, but they were missing really really important post.

“We spoke to somebody who’s house sale has been held up because they haven’t got a letter from their solicitors.

“You think everything must be done by email these days but there’s so much stuff where you have to have by post.

“It’s really having a massive impact on people’s lives.

“The problem was a lot of people got to the front of the queue but they still had no post to collect. “

Cllr August says the council are calling on regional management to hire more staff to help reduce the stress on current workers at the sorting office and create a plan on how the issue will be resolved.

“We’re trying to put as much pressure on the people higher up.

“The people who are working on the sorting office are working really really hard and they’re incredibly stressed.

“What we want is a plan from regional management on how this will be resolved and when normal delivery will resume.

“We do not accept this is a Covid issue as we are being told only a single worker has isolated and that was December 1.”

Last week answering complaints about the delay in Eccles, a Royal Mail spokesperson promised the problem would be fixed ‘as soon as possible’.

He said: “The vast majority of mail is delivered safely and on time. We aim to deliver to all addresses we have mail for, six days a week.

“In the Eccles area, we are experiencing some delays to service due to Covid-related self-isolation and high levels of sickness absence.

“We apologise to any customers who may have experienced delays to their mail.

“We are working hard to get our levels of service back to normal as soon as possible.

“Anyone who has concerns over the delivery of their mail should contact the Royal Mail customer service team on 03457 740 740 or via the Royal Mail website www.royalmail.com.”




Source link

About admin

Check Also

Friday papers: Royal Mail warns of £120m hit from national insurance rise – Citywire

: Royal Mail has warned that its heavily lossmaking business will be hit by a …

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *