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The “systemic failure” of Royal Mail’s Amersham sorting office has been reported to communications regulator Ofcom by Buckinghamshire Council leader Martin Tett amid ongoing complaints about late post.
Council leader Mr Tett has previously complained to Keith Williams, the Chairman of the Royal Mail, blasting the “completely unacceptable standard” of postal service in the area that has seen important work documents and bills delayed, hospital appointment letters missed and out-of-date magazines being delivered.
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Saying that direct complaints to Royal Mail have been “ineffective”, he has now complained to Melanie Dawes, the chief executive of Ofcom.
Mr Tett said the delays to the postal service which have been reported since late September have had a “profound effect” on residents.
He wrote: “Deliveries have reduced from daily to every three to four weeks, with some residents contacting me to say that a month can pass without a delivery. In addition, the post that is delivered is delayed often by many weeks, frequently making it valueless.”
He shared examples that residents have complained about, including critical papers and reports for working from home meetings not arriving, bill and fines becoming overdue, letters of probate and other legal contracts not being received, magazines not being delivered and Christmas cards posted in December still being delivered in mid-January.
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He added: “Complaints on the local Facebook group have now reached over 300. Direct complaints to Royal Mail have been ineffective. I have reports, including from my own secretary, of having to wait at least an hour for the Customer Complaints telephone line to be answered.
“A very recent response to a resident by Royal Mail attempts to blame recent absences on Covid. Importantly, these problems predate the upsurge in infection and isolation rates amongst staff due to Covid.
“Local postmen have ‘whistleblown’ to residents that the real cause of the problems is the use of the Amersham area as ‘a trial’ for a new way of working with priority given to parcel deliveries (where the Royal Mail is in competition with other companies) and the restructuring of deliveries, with reduced delivery frequencies, longer rounds and staff reductions.
“They describe the situation inside the sorting office as ‘chaotic’. I would be grateful for your observation on these systemic issues and any action you feel able to undertake.”
An Amersham resident told the Bucks Free Press they received a letter postmarked December 13 on January 15.
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They said: “Glad to see Royal Mail has a sense of humour unlike us Amersham residents who have lost ours.
“Postmarked 13th Dec. Arrived today 15th Jan with a logo on it encouraging us to post early. What a joke.”
Another said: “We are missing post from 1st to 14th December. It’s shocking and the Post Office don’t want to know. What has happened.”
