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OFCOM must bring further pressure to bear on Royal Mail to force it to address serious delays in letter delivery in both urban and rural areas, Sinn Féin councillor Stephen McCann said this week.
“As the independent regulator of postal services, OFCOM holds significant regulatory, investigative and enforcement powers over Royal Mail. As such, Fermanagh and Omagh Council requested a meeting with OFCOM, which is now scheduled for later this month.
“At this meeting, we will firstly highlight the real-life consequences of the serious delays in post delivery in this part of the world, including letters notifying patients about urgent medical appointments and other important time-sensitive mail arriving much too late.
“But we will also be calling on OFCOM to bring proper pressure to bear on Royal Mail to meet its Universal Service Obligation (USO) for a six-day-a-week letter delivery which is clearly not being met as more profitable parcel deliveries are clearly being prioritized over the delivery of letters.
“In December 2024 Ofcom fined Royal Mail £10.5m for failing to meet its 2023-24 delivery targets having been similarly fined £5.6m for failing to meet the targets in 2022-23. Despite these fines, there is no evidence that Royal Mail has taken the necessary steps to improve the delivery of letters and meet its USO targets and seems just willing to absorb the fines instead.”
He added: “It is therefore incumbent upon OFCOM to bring proper pressure to bear on Royal Mail to deliver the service it is supposed to and we will be pressing representatives of the body to spell out what additional enforcement powers they are going to use to hold Royal Mail accountable.”
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