Royal Mail issues urgent Christmas alert as 58 postcodes face major delivery disruption

Several Northern Ireland postcodes are included in the alert — full list in article

Royal Mail has delivered an urgent Christmas alert as postal services across 58 postcodes nationwide encounter significant disruption ahead of the holiday period. These also include several within Northern Ireland.

The postal service has disclosed that numerous local sorting facilities throughout the country are battling to maintain standard service levels owing to “high levels of sick absence, resourcing issues and other local factors”.

Whilst Royal Mail stays dedicated to its six-day weekly delivery commitment, it has acknowledged that in certain problematic regions, this target will “temporarily not be possible”.

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Residents in the impacted areas have been advised to prepare for potential delays to both correspondence and parcels during one of the year’s most hectic postal periods.

The firm stated that delivery routes will be rotated to “minimise delay”, whilst additional personnel have been deployed to assist the most severely affected offices in managing the Christmas mail surge, according to Bristol Live, reported the Mirror.

A comprehensive list released on Royal Mail’s website today shows dozens of affected postcodes, spanning from London and the South East all the way to Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Locations such as Brixton, Bristol East, Grimsby, Inverclyde, Kilmarnock, Motherwell, Plymouth, St Helens, Wigan and Yate are amongst those facing service interruptions.

Multiple distribution hubs in Scotland, along with various centres throughout Northern Ireland, including Belfast West, Lisburn and Londonderry, have also been added to the disruption list.

Royal Mail has issued an apology for the disruption, declaring: “We’re sorry for any inconvenience and thank you for your understanding. We will regularly update customers on the offices most impacted.”

This development follows a turbulent period for the postal operator, which has been grappling with heightened regulatory scrutiny and a spike in seasonal demand.

In October, it emerged that Royal Mail had been hit with a £21 million penalty for missing its annual first and second class mail delivery standards.

This led to millions of letters arriving late throughout the UK, according to regulator Ofcom.

The fine represents the third-largest sanction ever handed down by the communications watchdog.

Impacted 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)

Throughout the 2024-25 financial year, Royal Mail succeeded in delivering just 77% of first class mail and 92.5% of second class mail punctually, Ofcom found.

These statistics missed their respective benchmarks of 93% and 98.5%.

This represents the third year running that the British postal giant has faced financial penalties for failing to meet its service obligations.

Ian Strawhorne, director of enforcement at Ofcom, remarked: “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 extraordinary weather events 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 fault and agreed to settle the case.

The sanction reflected the harm suffered by customers due to the poor service and the reality that targets had been missed for three straight years.

It also took into consideration Royal Mail’s financial position, given the firm had recently returned to annual profitability.

A Royal Mail spokesperson responded: “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 has reported that trial runs of the proposed universal service alterations are “working, with improvements in deliveries” observed in certain UK regions.

Ofcom has given the green light to Royal Mail’s plan to cease Saturday second-class letter deliveries and shift the service to alternate weekdays, with these changes expected to roll out in the coming months.

Nonetheless, Royal Mail remains obligated under its universal service commitment to continue Monday to Saturday deliveries for first-class post and maintain the three working day delivery target for second-class letters.

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