Related Articles
A PHOTOGRAPHER from Andover has called for answers after he and his neighbours did not receive any mail for two weeks.
Brian Cartwright, who lives on Ward Close, was left confused when he did not receive any parcels or letters for a fortnight.
During that time the 75-year-old was expecting a parcel to be delivered, but when it did not arrive on the scheduled date Brian knew something was amiss.
He said: “A company sent me a copy of my new book, first class, on the last Saturday of July.
“I had my family down here and thought ‘oh, it’ll be here on Monday or Tuesday, and I’ll show them’.”
However, the book never arrived, and at this point Brian had not received any post for 10 days.
READ MORE: Residents say Royal Mail is running out of ‘Covid’ excuses for delay in Andover
He asked a passing postman why his mail had not been delivered, and Brian was shocked to find that his street is a “non-delivery area”.
Brian contacted Royal Mail customer services to find out more, but he was surprised to be told that his mail was being delivered to his address two to three times a week.
The photographer said: “The thing is, they are actually saying ‘we are not delivering to areas of Andover’ and the complaints office knows nothing about this.
“According to the complaint’s office, someone must fill in a form and say whether they have any problems, and there’s no problems at the Andover sorting office.
“Some people haven’t had any mail for three weeks, and we had no mail for two weeks.
“There is definitely something going wrong there.”
SEE ALSO: Restaurant hit with poor one-star food hygiene rating to close
Brian was only able to receive his mail by heading to the Andover delivery office, where he was again told that his street is a non-delivery area, one of several in Andover.
By Brian’s calculations, around 250 houses did not receive their mail for two weeks.
A Royal Mail spokesperson said: “While the vast majority of mail is delivered safely and on time, we are very sorry for the delays our customers are experiencing in the Andover area.
“These delays have been caused by resourcing issues. We are in the process of recruiting a number of permanent staff.
“When any delivery route has experienced delays, we have rotated deliveries to prioritise that route the next day, so that no customers should experience delays for more than one day.
We can also reassure customers that there is no accumulation of mail waiting to be delivered.”
