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It includes several in Yorkshire
Royal Mail has issued an urgent Christmas warning as postal services across 58 postcodes throughout the UK face significant disruption in the lead-up to the festive period.
The postal service has disclosed that numerous local sorting facilities across the country are battling to maintain normal service levels due to “high levels of sick absence, resourcing issues and other local factors”. While Royal Mail remains dedicated to its six-day weekly delivery commitment, it has acknowledged that in certain problematic areas, this standard will “temporarily not be possible”.
Residents in the impacted regions have been advised to prepare for potential delays to both correspondence and parcels during one of the year’s most demanding postal periods. The organisation stated that delivery routes will be rotated to “minimise delay”, while additional personnel have been deployed to assist the most severely affected offices in managing the increased Christmas post volumes, reports the Mirror.
A comprehensive list published on Royal Mail’s website today identifies dozens of affected postcodes, spanning from London and the South East all the way to Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Locations including Brixton, Bristol East, Grimsby, Inverclyde, Kilmarnock, Motherwell, Plymouth, St Helens, Wigan and Yate are among those experiencing service interruptions.
Multiple distribution hubs in Scotland, along with various facilities throughout Northern Ireland, including Belfast West, Lisburn and Londonderry, have also been included on the disruption register.
Affected postcodes
- Altens DO (AB10, AB11, AB12, AB35)
- Ashington DO (NE22, NE62, NE63, NE64)
- Barry DO (CF62, CF63)
- Batley DO (WF5, WF15, WF16, WF17)
- Belfast West DO (BT10, BT11, BT12, BT17)
- Bingham DO (NG12, NG13)
- Bristol East DO (BS5)
- Brixton DO (SW2)
- Calderway DO (WF12, WF13, WF14)
- Canvey Island DO (SS8)
- Clevedon DO (BS21, BS49)
- Congleton DO (CW4, CW12)
- Dundee East DO (DD4, DD5, DD7)
- Dunstable DO (LU5, LU6)
- Dyce DO (AB21)
- Eastwood DO (NG16)
- Ebbw Vale DO (NP23)
- Erskine DO (PA7, PA8)
- Glenrothes DO (KY6, KY7)
- Gloucester North DO (GL3, GL4)
- Gravesend Rural DO (DA12, DA13)
- Grimsby DO (DN31-DN37)
- Hyde DO (SK13, SK14, SK16)
- Inverclyde DO (PA14-PA19)
- Inverurie DO (AB51, AB52)
- Johnstone DO (PA5, PA6, PA9, PA10, PA12)
- Kettering DO (NN14-NN16)
- Kidsgrove DO (ST7)
- Kingswood DO (BS15 and BS30)
- Lichfield DO (WS7, WS13, WS14)
- Lisburn DO (BT26, BT27, BT28)
- Lochgelly DO (KY5)
- Londonderry DO (BT47-BT48)
- Mid Rhondda Ganol DO (CF39-CF40)
- Northfield DO (B31)
- North Tyneside DO (NE25-NE30)
- Northwich DO (CW8-CW9)
- Nottingham South DO (NG2, NG12)
- Ongar DO (CM5)
- Plympton DO (PL7)
- Pontefract DO (WF7, WF8, WF9, WF11)
- Prescot DO (L34, L35)
- Radstock DO (BA3)
- Renfrew DO (PA4)
- Sleaford DO (NG34)
- St Helens DO (WA9, WA10, WA11)
- Thornbury DO (BS35)
- Tipton DO (DY4)
- Uddingston DO (G71)
- Warrington DO (WA1, WA2, WA4, WA5, WA55)
- Wellington DO (TA21)
- Westhill DO (AB13, AB14, AB32)
- Whitehaven DO (CA18-CA20, CA26, CA28)
- Whitwood DO (WF6, WF10)
- Wigan DO (WN1-WN6)
- Wolverhampton DO (WV1, WV2, WV3, WV4, WV5, WV10, WV13 and WV14)
- Yate DO (BS37)
Royal Mail has issued an apology for the disruption, saying: “We’re sorry for any inconvenience and thank you for your understanding. We will regularly update customers on the offices most impacted.”
The development follows a turbulent period for the postal giant, which has been grappling with heightened regulatory scrutiny and a spike in festive season deliveries. Last October, it emerged that Royal Mail had been hit with a whopping £21 million penalty for missing its yearly first and second class postal delivery benchmarks.
The breach meant countless letters arrived behind schedule throughout Britain, the regulator Ofcom revealed. The sanction represents the third-heaviest punishment ever dished out by the communications oversight body.
Throughout the 2024-25 financial period, Royal Mail succeeded in delivering just 77 per cent of first class post and 92.5 per cent of second class mail punctually, Ofcom found. These statistics missed their designated goals of 93 per cent and 98.5 per cent respectively.
It represents the third year running that the British postal titan has faced financial penalties for falling short of its service obligations.
Ian Strawhorne, Ofcom’s enforcement chief, said: “Millions of important letters are arriving late, and people aren’t getting what they pay for when they buy a stamp.
“These persistent failures are unacceptable, and customers expect and deserve better. Royal Mail must rebuild consumers’ confidence as a matter of urgency. And that means making actual significant improvements, not more empty promises.
“We’ve told the company to publicly set out how it’s going to deliver this change, and we expect to start seeing meaningful progress soon,” Mr Strawhorne added. “If this doesn’t happen, fines are likely to continue.”
The watchdog disclosed it had considered exceptional weather conditions during its investigation, including storms and flooding, but found Royal Mail had still fallen short of delivery standards between April 2024 and March 2025. The £21 million penalty was reduced from £30 million after Royal Mail acknowledged responsibility and agreed to settle the matter.
The fine reflected the harm experienced by customers due to the poor service and the reality that targets had been missed for three consecutive years. It also took into account Royal Mail’s financial position, given the company had recently returned to annual profitability.
A Royal Mail spokesperson said: “We acknowledge the decision made by Ofcom today and we will continue to work hard to deliver further sustained improvements to our quality of service. A key area of focus and investment has been the detailed work ahead of full implementation of our new delivery model, enabled by Ofcom’s changes to the universal service.
“This is critical to enable us to drive a step change in quality of service. We have also implemented important changes across our network including recruiting, retaining and training our people, and providing additional support to delivery offices.”
The company confirmed that pilot schemes testing the universal service alterations were “working, with improvements in deliveries” across specific regions of the UK.
Ofcom has given the green light to Royal Mail’s plan to scrap second-class letter deliveries on Saturdays and shift the service to alternate weekdays, with the changes expected to roll out in the upcoming months. Nonetheless, Royal Mail continues to be obligated by its universal service commitment to maintain Monday to Saturday deliveries for first-class post and meet the three working day delivery target for second-class letters.
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