Oxford Royal Mail update after years of ‘poor standards’

Severe delays to Royal Mail deliveries in Oxfordshire – particularly in east Oxford – have caused people to miss crucial letters including for hospital appointments and wedding and funeral invitations.

Residents have previously shared their frustrations with this newspaper surrounding the ongoing postal issues, with numerous people saying their post arrives late or not at all. 

Anneliese Dodds, MP for Oxford East, says she has ‘long been concerned with the poor standard’ of service from Royal Mail in her constituency.

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She said that despite ‘numerous temporary fixes’ being implemented over the years, the ‘underlying issues have persisted’.

Earlier this year the Labour MP hosted a residents’ meeting in the hopes that Royal Mail would take urgent, permanent action.

The meeting held in March (Image: Contributed) Now, Ms Dodds said Royal Mail has come back with ‘concrete actions’ they have taken.
   
“Royal Mail has told me that since May 2025, they have seen a marked improvement in the service they are providing in Oxford East,” said Ms Dodds.

“They are now consistently delivering to more than 85 per cent of addresses six days a week, compared with 70 per cent of addresses at the beginning of the year, which is a good start, but still leaves 15 per cent of my constituents without the mail they need.

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“They also reassured me that if it is not possible to deliver mail on a given day, mail rounds would be robustly rotated to ensure mail delivery is as frequent as possible.”

But Ms Dodds said ‘there is still more to be done’, adding: “With new recruits now on delivery rounds, as customer and round knowledge improves, Oxford will hopefully see further performance improvements. “

Ms Dodds said in ‘direct response’ to feedback from the public meeting, Royal Mail has introduced dedicated NHS letter frames to ‘improve’ service in the event of service disruption, so that NHS letters can be ‘easily identified and prioritised’.

Anneliese Dodds MP observed stacks of undelivered letters and hundreds of packages in metal trollies during her unannounced visit in October 2023 (Image: Oxford Mail) She added: “I understand that Royal Mail nationally have been seeking to work with the NHS to get a more coherent approach adopted, and I have written to the Department for Health and Social Care to encourage the Department to work together with Royal Mail on this.”

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Ms Dodds has visited the East Oxford sorting office on several occasions and even turned up unannounced in October 2023.

The MP said that Royal Mail has now extended the opening times of the Customer Service Point at Oxford Delivery Office.

The sorting office is now open Tuesday to Friday, between 4pm and 6pm, in addition to the morning openings on Mondays to Fridays and Saturdays. 

Ms Dodds added: “I believe that local staff have been doing all they can to improve the service, and that our postal workers understand how services can be improved.”