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Royal Mail bosses have written to Halton’s MP to say it was the addressing ‘unacceptable’ problems with postal deliveries in Widnes – although the original letter informing him of said measures was never itself delivered.
Derek Twigg said he had been in repeated communication with Royal Mail about the issue of letter deliveries in the town. He said constituents had contacted him stating they had not received letters about hospital appointments, while bank cards and packages had also not been delivered, which he branded ‘unacceptable’.
He has since received a response by the organisation which said it was currently recruiting new postal staff and had a number of health initiatives designed to reduce absence. But in further correspondence to Royal Mail, Mr Twigg said he never received their original letter – dated September 7 – and that it was only sent to him this week via email when he chased the matter up.
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The Royal Mail letter said: “Since my last letter, the team at Widnes Delivery Office are now delivering to circa 60 per cent of addresses, six days a week when there is mail to deliver.
“Those addresses which do not receive a mail delivery on a given day will be prioritised the next working day.
“Great progress is being made but there is more to do so that customers in Widnes receive a mail delivery six days a week.”
The letter added that Royal Mail was ‘working hard’ to reduce sick absence and that it had recruited two new postal workers over the past month and was recruiting for an other six to based at the Widnes Delivery Office. It added that it was currently using agency staff while the recruitment process was ongoing.
Posing on Facebook, Mr Twigg said: “I am pleased that Royal Mail seem to have finally grasped that the key issue was lack of staff. This was not the fault of the staff in Widnes, as many of you also recognised. I am glad that the Royal Mail national leadership have finally agreed to put extra staffing resources into Widnes. I will be continuing to monitor the situation closely.”
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