Eastbourne MP told Royal Mail ‘backlog has been addressed’ and services will improve

She said she’s received lots of complaints from residents about letters and parcels being lost or delayed.

Mrs Ansell said, “The Royal Mail has been hit with the same dynamic as any and every other sector with covid-related absence and, of course, it also experienced a significant uplift in the number and nature of items it handles these last two years.

“Many local people have contacted me to express their concerns over the service.

“There were those anxiously waiting to hear from loved ones, for job offers, others waiting for cancer results to cite only a few of the cases I handled.

“We rely on this service and its importance was made all the more real and visible by the disruption.

“However, I have been told the backlog has been addressed and the local service is back on track and fast moving towards the standards it wants to provide.

“The delivery office is recruiting and expects to be back at full strength. It also confirmed it has managed to reduce delivery times on letters to 48 hours with parcels being delivered daily.

“This is good news as I know the strain it has placed on people waiting for post as they have shared their stories with me.”

A spokesperson for Royal Mail said, “The vast majority of mail is delivered safely and on time. We aim to deliver to all addresses we have mail for, six days a week.

“In the local area, we are experiencing some delays to service due to high levels of sickness absence, covid-related self-isolation and resourcing issues.

“We apologise to any customers who may have experienced delays to their mail.

“We have been working hard to get our levels of service back to normal as soon as possible. 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.”