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For a while now I’ve been receiving messages from constituents about poor levels of service in parts of Blaenau Gwent & Rhymney. Mail not turning up for weeks on end in some areas, hospital appointments being missed due to late letters. Problems only worsening through the busy festive period.
I asked a question about this in Parliament and wrote to Royal Mail, Ofcom and the minister for small business and economic transformation.
The response I received from the minister illustrates that this is not an isolated problem.
I am told that the Royal Mail was fined £21m by Ofcom last October because of its failure to meet required service levels in 2024/25. This comes after also being fined in 22/23 and 23/24.
The minister told me that he has met with the CEO of Royal Mail, and CEO of Royal Mail’s parent company.
He wrote: “The government is clear that Royal Mail’s quality of service has not been good enough.”
I am pleased to be told that Ofcom has told Royal Mail it must urgently publish and deliver a credible plan for significant and continuous improvement.
As I said in my question, and also when I visited the sorting office, our local posties are a good, hard-working bunch who put in long shifts in some terrible weather. They deserve better and so do their customers.
On Monday, December 22, a team of volunteers met to pack food hampers for this year’s Everyone Deserves a Christmas campaign – organised by Gerald Jones MP and me, with the help of campaign originator Carolyn Harris MP.
More than 400 packages went out across Blaenau & Rhymney and also Merthyr Tydfil & Aberdare.
In Blaenau Gwent & Rhymney these were distributed by the Ebbw Vale Institute, Llanhilleth Institute, Glyncoed Community Group, Waundeg Community Flat, the Hospice of the Valleys and Caerphilly Cares.
Thank you to these groups for their help, as well as everyone who helped put the packages together and those organisations that contributed financially. Thanks to you, Christmas would have been made a bit easier for 400 local families.
Nick Smith is the member of Parliament for Blaenau Gwent and Rhymney.
