Royal Mail confirms staff shortages due to Covid-19 are reason for disruption

Royal Mail has confirmed that staff shortages as a result of Covid caused its sorting office on Mead Street to close for a number of days.

On Thursday (May 19) a local resident shared two photos of the Customer Service Point at the office to Twitter, writing: “Third day in a row that I’ve gone out of my way to the sorting office and it’s closed… What’s going on?!”

In the tweet, paper signs could be seen on the Customer Service Point – one reading “unfortunately due to staff shortage we are unable to open our Customer Service Point today. Our apologies, RM Management.”

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Another read: “Due to unforeseen circumstances this CSP will be closing at 12pm for the rest of this week. Sorry for any inconvenience this may cause you. Kind Regards, Management.”

In a statement, a Royal Mail spokseperson told Bristol Live: “A high level of sickness absences caused by Covid-19 meant that we had no choice but to close the Customer Service Point at our South East Bristol Delivery Office on Mead Street for several days. We are very sorry for any inconvenience caused.

“This Customer Service Point will be open until 12pm on Saturday, May 21, and from 11am to 3pm on Sunday, May 22. From Monday, May 23, it will be back to its normal hours as detailed on our website here.

Customers can find other details of other nearby Customer Service Points on our website here.”

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