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Royal Mail has denied claims that residents living in a West Lancashire town haven’t had regular post for six months.
The postal service and courier company admitted “there have been some delays” to some deliveries, however not to the extent claimed by disgruntled residents. One man, who lives on Blakehall in Skelmersdale, said “all of my neighbours are kicking off” and they “just want to get to the bottom of it and find out what’s happened”.
The man, who asked not to be named, said at one point they received around 20 letters, once a fortnight on a Saturday before post stopped being delivered altogether. He claimed that locals were then asked to collect their own post from Glebe Road post office, due to understaffing.
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He claimed this had gone on for up to six months, but this has been denied Royal Mail, who have stated their commitment to “restoring” the quality of service in the area. The resident told the ECHO: “I get a lot of hospital appointment letters come through the post which are important. It’s not right.
“All of my neighbours are kicking off, Royal Mail are meant to provide a service. We just want to get to the bottom of it and find out what’s happened.”
A Royal Mail spokesperson said: “While there have been some delays there are none where a person would experience delays for six months. Mail is being delivered daily, and where a route isn’t completed it will be prioritised the following day.
“We are committed to restoring our quality of service to our customers. We have plans in place and dedicated teams responsible for improving deliveries across Lancashire and throughout our delivery offices nationwide.
“Over the last six weeks we have recruited around 3,000 postmen and women and are continuing to recruit c.500 permanent positions a week in delivery. To support the physical and mental health of our employees and assist them in their return to work, we have introduced a wellbeing programme which provides colleagues with free, confidential, and independent healthcare support, including unlimited 24/7 access to an online GP.
“In the lead up to Christmas, we are taking on 16,000 temporary workers, more vehicles and additional parcel sorting sites to handle double the normal volume of parcels we expect over the period. These actions plus others are already making a difference in some areas and we are confident that they will continue to improve quality of service for our customers.”
