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This has created significant difficulties for senior citizens and disabled residents who rely on essential deliveries such as hospital letters, driving licenses, and fixed penalty notices.
The shortage of staff at the sorting office is believed to be due to high levels of sick leave, which employees claim the company is not recruiting for.
Julie Reeves, 63, picked up 14 letters on Friday – and told The Times she is forced to drive three miles there from Catford every few days.
She said that she had only been receiving letter deliveries since July, even though a regular postman used to come every morning.
This month, Julie added that she hasn’t seen a Royal Mail van for ten days.
With regular deliveries depleting, the Daily Mail has reported that residents have been reporting missing hospital letters, important bills, fixed-penalty notices and driving licences.
On Durham Road, residents told the Daily Mail that post services are so irregular that they have a WhatsApp group to tell each other when the postman is there.
A spokesperson for the Royal Mail told the Daily Mail: “We have a dedicated plan to improve the Bromley area’s service quality.
“This has already reduced absence levels by more than half, with all current sick absences covered through temporary recruitment.”
Earlier this week, the boss of Royal Mail, Simon Thompson, stepped down after being accused by MPs of an “unacceptable level of incompetence”.
Thompson believes that “it is the right time for the company to move forward under new leadership.”
This comes after the company agreed to a deal with the Communication Workers Union, which gives staff a ten per cent salary raise and a £500 one-off payment.
Despite the difficulties faced by residents, the company sought government support to halt Saturday deliveries, but the proposal was rejected due to unanswered questions about how the move might affect the public’s needs.
