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Industrial action and claims by a Royal Mail staff member of unworkable changes to rounds led to a chaotic postal service in the Bishop’s Stortford area over the Christmas holiday period.
Residents reported Christmas cards arriving up to four weeks after they were sent and important letters failing to arrive in time amid claims there is a six to eight week backlog of letters.
It has also been claimed because the Bishop’s Stortford sorting office in South Street is full mail is being sent back to Chelmsford.
A postal worker contacted the Indie at the beginning of December to warn of the chaos and also, while apologising to customers, slammed new working practices. The postie insisted the long-running strike by the Communication Workers Union (CWU) was not just about pay but was to protect jobs and defend working practices.
The CWU – which has 110,000 members in Royal Mail – has been in dispute with management for months over pay and conditions and announced a raft of strikes throughout December, including Friday December 23 and Christmas Eve.
The dispute, which shows no sign of being resolved, caused blockages in the service and forced Royal Mail to bring forward last posting dates for Christmas, but the postie who contacted the Indie, along with another back in October, said many of the issues were caused by management incompetence.
The worker said staff had been told to prioritise parcels – a claim denied by Royal Mail – and said a computer based review of rounds had seen more homes added, with no extra time allowed. This had meant 90 per cent of rounds were not completed, according to the postie.
All these issues led to havoc with residents posting complaint after complaint on social media.
One woman posting on Bishop’s Stortford Civic Federation Facebook group said she was awaiting the result of an MRI scan in November and after the delay of an order to her business she had lost revenue.
Another said on Monday (Jan 2) they had post franked November 28 and December 6 delivered on Saturday (Dec 31) while a birthday card sent on December 5 wasn’t delivered until December 28, prompting the sender to suggest it would have been better to drive over and deliver the card herself.
Reader Stephen Beach took issue with a Royal Mail spokesman’s comment to the Indie in December that “no customers should experience delays for more than one day”.
Stephen said on December 22 his address in Gerard Avenue, Thorley Park had not had post since December 9 and he had resorted to collecting mail from Stortford’s sorting office.
He updated the Indie yesterday (Tues) saying after speaking to a postie on Thursday (Dec 29) he received a backlog of post the following day, but there was still mail he was expecting that had not arrived.
A Royal Mail spokesperson said: “While the vast majority of mail is delivered safely and on time, we are very sorry for the delays that some customers have reported locally.
“This has partly been caused by severe weather and a high level of staff absence, as well as the impact of the ongoing strike action by the Communication Workers Union.
“When any particular delivery route has experienced delays, we have rotated deliveries to try and minimise the impact on customers, which is what we have done in Bishop’s Stortford.”
The spokesperson added: “Anyone who has concerns over the delivery of their mail should contact the Royal Mail customer service team on 03457 740 740 or via the Royal Mail website www.royalmail.com.”
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