Royal Mail issues update after claims post was delayed

Royal Mail has provided an update after claims people living in a town hadn’t received post regularly for six months.

A man, who lives on Blakehall in Skelmersdale told the ECHO that locals on his street had suffered a series of issues. He said at one stage they received around 20 letters, once a fortnight on a Saturday, before post stopped being delivered altogether and locals were asked to collect their own post from Glebe Road post office, due to understaffing.

He claimed this had gone on for up to six months, but that claim was denied today by Royal Mail, who said they had had some issues with deliveries but not on that scale. Royal Mail stated their commitment to “restoring” the quality of service in the area.

The resident, who asked not to be named, said: “I get a lot of hospital appointment letters come through the post which are important. It’s not right. All of my neighbours are kicking off, Royal Mail are meant to provide a service. We just want to get to the bottom of it and find out what’s happened.”

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A Royal Mail spokesperson said: “While there have been some delays there are none where a person would experience delays for six months. Mail is being delivered daily, and where a route isn’t completed it will be prioritised the following day.

“We are committed to restoring our quality of service to our customers. We have plans in place and dedicated teams responsible for improving deliveries across Lancashire and throughout our delivery offices nationwide.

“Over the last six weeks we have recruited around 3,000 postmen and women and are continuing to recruit c.500 permanent positions a week in delivery. To support the physical and mental health of our employees and assist them in their return to work, we have introduced a wellbeing programme which provides colleagues with free, confidential, and independent healthcare support, including unlimited 24/7 access to an online GP.

“In the lead up to Christmas, we are taking on 16,000 temporary workers, more vehicles and additional parcel sorting sites to handle double the normal volume of parcels we expect over the period.

“These actions plus others are already making a difference in some areas and we are confident that they will continue to improve quality of service for our customers.”

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