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Some residents on a 900-home housing estate in Wigan claim they are missing hospital appointments because of the failure of the Royal Mail to deliver their post regularly.
Several homeowners on the Rothwells Farm development in Golborne have lodged official complaints to the company. The Royal Mail has now admitted there have been ‘some recent issues with resourcing’ due to higher levels of sick absence’ at a delivery office which have hampered postal deliveries.
A spokesperson said: “We would reassure residents that we have measures in place to keep resulting delays to a minimum.”
They also said yesterday (August 16) deliveries are ‘currently clear’ with letters posted towards the end of last week. The residents’ cause has been taken up by Golborne and West Lowton Coun Gena Merrett and Leigh MP Jo Platt.
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Coun Merrett said households had not been receiving regular postal deliveries since May. She said: “They have been told that they have no post person for the estate and that they have to collect their post from the Newton-le-Willows sorting office.
“This office only opens a couple of hours per day during the week and it is no easy task to pick it up. The only time they seem to get deliveries is when the post builds up in the sorting office and they need to clear it out.
“Under the terms of the Royal Mail’s government contract, all residents are promised a universal postal service, so this is completely unacceptable and it’s now been going on for two-and-a-half months.”
Councillor Merrett also said residents had been treated in an ‘off-hand manner’ when visiting the sorting office. “One said: ‘You’re not helping yourselves by coming and mithering – you’re slowing us down’,” she claimed.
On Facebook, she called it ‘the housing estate the Royal Mail has forgotten’, saying residents had issued a plea to the company to restore their postal service as many had had no deliveries since May. One of the residents who has complained is Smantha Mazfari who has set up a WhatsApp group of disgruntled customers.
“Twenty people messaged me last night and we’ve now got the ball rolling by making official complaints,” she said. “People have missed hospital appointments and one of the group got a parking fine, but because she didn’t get the letter soon enough, she had to pay the full amount.”
She said there had always been an issue with the post for the estate, which is about five years old. The addresses affected by the problem include houses on Farm Croft Drive, Edwards Trumble Meadow, Farm Croft, Rothwell Gardens, North Meadow Close, McKenna Close, and East Meadow Close.
The full extent of the residents’ and the Coun Merrett’s complaints were put to the Royal Mail press office by the Local Democracy Reporting Service. Their spokesperson’s full response was: “We can confirm deliveries to Rothwell Gardens Estate are currently clear with deliveries being carried out yesterday and today. There is no further mail to be delivered.
“There have been some recent issues with resourcing due to higher levels of sick absence at the delivery office. We would reassure residents that we have measures in place to keep resulting delays to a minimum.”
