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One person said she missed a letter that said she had a ‘serious’ issue with her car
Residents are frustrated with the lack of post being delivered, with some missing “important” letters. Some people who live in Hampton, Peterborough, claim they have received minimal post since the start of January.
Residents find it “frustrating” that the post is not being delivered on time. One woman, who wished to remain anonymous, didn’t receive post for over three weeks.
When she did receive a delivery, she had a large pile of letters and realised she had missed a letter regarding a “serious” issue with her car. She said: “I received a large amount of post as a parcel came.
“There was a vehicle safety recall for my car dated January 7, regarding a serious fuel issue. This has meant I’ve been driving a car for nearly a month without knowing this due to the post not being delivered.”
The woman also missed a new bank card being delivered. She has found the lack of deliveries to be “worrying”.
She added: “I appreciate there may be staffing issues, but postage has still been paid for and nothing has been delivered in the right timescales. Postage is paid for, and most people expect their post within one to three working days.
“So, to go weeks without post, with many items being of high importance and without a proper explanation from Royal Mail is frustrating. I think communication has been terrible.
“I only knew there was a known issue due to Facebook posts. Royal Mail should have made residents aware.”
Louise Gray has only received the post “three times this year”. She hasn’t missed anything but important, but said it “isn’t right”.
Louise added: “I can’t remember the last time I saw a post person more than once a week. We haven’t even been told why there hasn’t been that much post.
“If we want to send something these days, it will cost £1.70 odd for a first class stamp. Why should we have to pay such a high amount when we can’t even get our post on time?”
A woman who lives in Hampton Vale, who wished to not be named, has not received any post this year. “I have missed important mail – I’ve missed payments and deadlines for my car road tax and credit card payments,” she said.
The woman added: “They [Royal Mail] could have informed citizens about the problem. I can understand a week delay, but this is a complete stop of mail service, while senders still pay money to have post delivered first class and so on.
“If I had a road fine and I didn’t know, then I will have to pay double and so on. Who is going to pay?”
The woman said she was told if she wanted to collect her post, she could go to the delivery office in Orton Southgate, near Hampton. However, this is only open for two hours in the morning, apart from four hours on Thursday and Saturday.
She added the lack of opening hours for the office “makes it difficult to collect if you work”. She said: “I am supposed to receive important documents for travelling and I am very concerned when I will receive it.
“We need public explanations and the re-enstatement of a normal service. I don’t know how they can think of getting away with it without informing people.”
Ben Hudson said he had a birthday card arrive over a week later due to the delays. He said: “It seems like ages ago we would have post delivered every day.
“It’s not the worst thing in the world, but it’s not good enough. I understand there may not be as many staff, but the Royal Mail is a national service. It should be expected that people can get their letters delivered on time.”
The Orton Southgate delivery office has undergone ‘operational challenges’ in the last few weeks, affecting mostly PE2 postcodes, but also PE7, which is the Hampton postcode, and PE9 postcodes, a Royal Mail spokesperson has said. Over Christmas, mail was cleared and staff at the sorting office experienced low sickness levels.
However in early January, there was an increase in staff being absent, alongside letter volumes getting higher. As a result, delivery routes have had to run on a ‘rotational basis’, meaning letters have been delivered less.
The spokesperson said: “We know how important reliable deliveries are for customers and we’re pleased to see clear improvements in performance in recent days. Additional support is in place and service levels continue to stabilise as we work to restore normal service as quickly as possible.”
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