MP slams changes to Royal Mail delivery office opening hours

Cheshire MP Mike Amesbury has written to the Department for Business and Trade to express concern about a “massive cut” in public opening hours at Royal Mail delivery offices.

Royal Mail reduced opening times at half its customer service points last month. and Mr Amesbury is concerned about the impact this will have on customers and on Royal Mail staff. He has flagged up concerns about how it will affect those who work during the limited opening hours and also those who are not able to access online services.

And he is worried about the impact on hardworking postal staff, saying he suspects that “‘new work practices’ started to come in during the pandemic as an excuse to run down the numbers of workers”.

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The delivery offices affected by the cuts include Runcorn and Northwich in Mr Amesbury’s Weaver Vale constituency. Many, including Runcorn, are now typically only operating between 8am to 10am on weekdays, while on Saturday they open from 8am to 12pm.

This change was implemented at the Frodsham delivery office a year ago. Meanwhile others, including Northwich, also open between 4pm-6pm on Thursdays.

Slamming the move and the impact on customers and Royal Mail staff, Mr Amesbury said: “These changes represent a massive cut in the previous opening hours, potentially inconveniencing domestic and business customers who use the service for both sending post and packages and collecting missed parcels as well as online shopping returns.

“In addition, the timeslots now available are inconvenient for people who don’t work from home. It feels like a cynical attempt to undermine the service to eventually justify closing it altogether.

“This is about forcing everyone to make arrangements online through an app but not everyone is able to embrace the digital age, including some pensioners. Yet again we see the human touch disappearing because of corporate greed.”

Mr Amesbury, who has raised concerns with business minister Kevin Hollinrake MP, is also worried about the impact on affected postal workers. In some cases, staff have moved across to work in an office environment for health reasons.

The MP added: “My suspicion is ‘new work practices’ started to come in during the pandemic as an excuse to run down the numbers of workers. You can see the effect on the reliability of the postal service in general.

“The price of stamps continues to go up but parcels are prioritised over letters and we see delays in the delivery of everyday mail due through no fault of hardworking postal staff.”

Responding to Mr Amesbury’s concerns, a Royal Mail spokesperson said: “We understand the importance that some customers attach to Customer Service Points (CSPs) as one of a number of ways in which they can access our services. An increase in doorstep services such as Parcel Collect and Safeplace are helping us to enhance customer convenience and deliver more parcels first time.

“In May this year, we also introduced automatic redelivery of parcels the next working day across the UK for customers who are not at home when posties attempt to deliver the first time. Over 99 per cent of parcels are now successfully delivered to customers on the first or second delivery attempt.

“This is reducing the need for customers to collect parcels from CSPs. To keep pace with the changing behaviour of our customers, we are amending the opening hours of CSPs.

“We have a range of options free-of-charge for customers who want to arrange for an item to be redelivered. Details of how to arrange this can be found on our website here.”

CheshireLive has approached the Department of Business and Trade for comment.

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