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MP Siobhan Baillie has taken up the issue and says deliveries in some areas are down to just once a week, which has led to medical appointments, college offers, online deliveries and even cancer treatment sessions being missed.
She has written to Royal Mail to express her widespread concerns about the ‘poor frequency’ of deliveries across the town and wider district.
Areas affected include Stroud, Brimscombe, Stonehouse, Nailsworth, Cainscross and other places across the district.
Ms Baillie said: “Royal Mail is obligated to offer a six-day a week delivery service and in pretty much all of the district this does not appear to be happening in any way we could describe as regularly.
“It is unacceptable that some areas are telling me they are receiving post just once a week.
“I have written to Royal Mail to outline the issues, pointing out the waste of time and financial cost of missed appointments has a direct impact on the NHS, other patients and the taxpayer funded public services.
“In a time of an NHS backlog this is particularly disappointing.”
Tony Davey, chair of Stroud Chamber of Trade, is concerned about the impact on businesses.
“Generally, in Stroud town centre, there are few reported issues with deliveries – where there are problems they are relatively isolated,” he said.
“However, many businesses receive business correspondence at home rather than at their trading premises.
“Many of these businesses have reported delays in receiving their mail of seven or even 10 days – especially in Ebley and Cashes Green.
“These can be important communications or supplies, so can have a significant impact on businesses where the correspondence is time sensitive.
“The perception, in line with that of many others, is that deliveries (in the areas surrounding the town) may be only once or twice a week.
“By contrast, businesses are generally finding their post to addresses outside the area are within expected timescales, indicating that the current issues may be common to our immediate area.”
Newly-elected Stonehouse mayor Carol Kambites said: “There have been considerable problems with the postal service in our town, although things seem to have improved recently.
“I would like to stress that this is not the fault of individual postal staff.
“My personal view is that such an important service that we all rely on should be in public ownership and should never have been privatised.”
A spokesperson for Royal Mail apologised to those affected saying: “We are very sorry to residents who have experienced delays.
“We have no bigger priority beyond improving our quality of service and we are firmly committed to restoring service levels to where our customers expect them to be.
“There has been some recent disruption to daily deliveries across Stroud.
“Every day, efforts are taken locally to ensure that any delays are kept to a minimum, and those who do not receive their mail are prioritised the next day.
“Across our business we have plans in place to drive service levels and reduce absence at our delivery offices, we hope and expect to see further progress in the coming months.
“We encourage anyone with concerns about the delivery of their mail to contact Royal Mail customer service on 03457 740 740 or via royalmail.com.”
