Eastbourne residents say post situation is still ‘absolute mayhem’ months on

Cllr Shuttleworth wrote to the chief executive of Royal Mail about the lack of public information on the problem that has impacted residents in the Langney area.

Now resident Julie Farrow has questioned what’s being done to solve the problems, arguing that Royal Mail is ‘down-playing’ the issue.

Julie, of Avondale Road, said she’s been collecting her post from the sorting office in Southfield Road on and off since October due to the restructuring which has resulted in her failing to get daily deliveries anymore, along with many of her neighbours.

She said the issue started in August when she received two–three week’s worth of post in one go.

This situation means Julie’s gas/electricity supplier got switched and her water account was closed without her knowledge due to human error, and because she wasn’t getting the letters she wasn’t able to stop the switch or closure in time. On top of this she’s been charged a £40 exit fee.

On the question of restructuring, she said she was told be a post worker that an individual senior manager at Royal Mail made the changes in August without consulting the post workers, resulting in routes that ‘don’t make sense’ and take ‘much longer’ to complete.

When she asks at the sorting office about more resources being allocated to sort out the delays and deal with the post ‘piling up’, Julie said she was told they’re ‘hoping to allocate more resources’ but there is no idea of when this will be – meaning the busy Christmas period could be a struggle.

In an email response she got on November 23 from the Royal Mail Escalated Customer Resolution Team, Julie was told, “Having contacted your local delivery office manager and the manager’s immediate superior directly, I can confirm they’ve been made aware of your complaint’s details.

“In their response, the manager has informed me that, whilst your local delivery office is still experiencing issues, they are looking to allocate additional resources to resolve this matter.”

She said, “How is this still going on? What’s going to happen to all this excess December mail? It’s absolute mayhem. It’s a real scandal that this is still going on almost four months later.”

Julie said parcel deliveries ‘seem to be nonexistent’ and when she went to collect one, she said she was told there are ‘a thousand’ parcels that haven’t been sorted in the Eastbourne office – something she called ‘very concerning’.

Julie said post workers she’s spoken to have called the current situation ‘utter chaos’ and ‘far from resolved’.

Dora Hodgson, neighbour to Julie, said she relies on post for hospital appointments so ‘gets anxious’ she may miss important letters.

Dora, 78, said post workers have told her the situation is ‘impossible’.

Julie collects Dora’s post for her from the sorting office. Dora said, “It’s too far for me to go so I’m relying on Julie which isn’t fair.”

Speaking on December 8 Dora said she hadn’t seen a post worker for two weeks, and when it does come it’s 10-20 things at a time.

Richard Salford, of Kilda Street nearby, said, “I’ll get nothing for days and then a great pile arrives.”

On average he said he gets a post delivery once a week but weekly subscriptions consequently come late and are therefore out of date.

He said, “I asked one of the postmen and he just said it was chaos.”

All allegations were taken to Royal Mail. A spokesperson for the company said, “We apologise to customers for any delays they may have experienced in some parts of Eastbourne. The vast majority of mail and parcels are delivered safely and on time.

“In recent weeks, we have implemented revisions, to our postmen and women’s routes in Eastbourne to ensure they reflect changes in the local area, such as new residential developments, and are fairer and more balanced to reflect the growth in parcel deliveries. Unfortunately, these changes also coincided with a higher than normal rate of sickness absence in the local area which has placed additional pressure on the operation.

“We are working hard to resolve the situation and it is improving.

“Jointly with our trade unions, we have revised routes throughout the country to ensure they are fairer and reflect the growth in addresses and parcel deliveries.”