Related Articles
This comes after deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly met with Royal Mail to raise her own concerns
Lagan Valley MP Sorcha Eastwood has submitted an Early Day Motion in the House of Commons, which calls for a review of Royal Mail’s ownership after “persistent failures” with deliveries in Northern Ireland.
Ms Eastwood’s motion calls out Royal Mail’s performance, including reports of post being batched over one to two weeks rather than delivered daily, which would be in breach of statutory delivery targets.
The motion highlights that Royal Mail has repeatedly missed Ofcom targets under the Universal Service Obligation while consumers face rising stamp prices and declining service quality, and pays tribute to postal workers who continue to serve our communities under significant operational pressures, including staffing shortages, overtime restrictions, operational changes and the prioritisation of parcels over letters.
Sorcha Eastwood called on the Government, Ofcom and Royal Mail to set out urgent measures to restore delivery performance, ensure equality of service across all regions and nations, and strengthen accountability for persistent failures; and further called for a review of Royal Mail’s ownership and governance model to ensure the Universal Service Obligation is protected in the public interest.
This comes after deputy First Minister Emma Little Pengelly and DUP Upper Bann MLA Diane Dodds met with Royal Mail on Wednesday to raise their concerns about postal services in Lagan Valley and Upper Bann.
In a social media post, Emma Little Pengelly confirmed that there is currently significant staff shortages in both areas and that Royal Mail will be recruiting 10 new postal delivery staff in the next few weeks, including attending a Recruitment Fair and holding an Open Day at their Lisburn Sorting Office alongside recruiting eight new postal delivery staff for the Banbridge area.
The deputy First Minister also said that Royal Mail is committed to allowing overtime and using agency staff to address the issues while recruitment is ongoing, and that they assured her that there will be no overtime restrictions in place.
A Royal Mail spokesperson said: “We are working hard to restore our service in Lisburn and Banbridge to its usual high standards. We anticipate the situation will improve shortly as we recruit for more posties.”
Want to see more of the stories you love from Belfast Live? Making us your preferred source on Google means you’ll get more of our exclusives, top stories and must-read content straight away. To add Belfast Live as a preferred source, simply click here.
Source link
