Royal Mail managers say postal deliveries in Portslade are returning to normal, after concerns about staffing levels at its sorting office.
Managers have apologised for disruptions to the delivery service in BN41 and BN42 postcodes.
Portslade councillors met with them on Monday to raise concerns over the company’s staffing decisions and recent claims of missed mail deliveries.
Royal Mail managers told them a mixture of staff sickness, annual leave and strike action, along with not being able to employ enough temporary staff, caused the issues.
The company says they now have a contingency plan in place to minimise future delays from staffing shortages, including from industrial action.
North Portslade Councillor Peter Atkinson said: “The proof of the pudding here will, obviously, be mail getting delivered on time.
“At least we now have the names of the Royal Mail managers who we can contact if there’s a problem.
“We really value our postal staff and hope that we can now look forward to a better and stable situation.”
Cllr Atkinson updated residents, saying that claims the managers had only recently learnt of the issues to postal deliveries were not credible as they would have had a manager on site.
Royal Mail managers also told councillors that packages had to be delivered first to allow enough space for ordinary mail to be stored safely.
A Royal Mail spokesperson said: “We are very sorry for the delays reported by some customers in the BN41 and BN42 postcode areas, served by Portslade Delivery Office.
“This follows a period of higher than normal sick absence, together with some resourcing issues and the industrial action taken by members of the Communication Workers Union.
“We have put in place a contingency plan to minimise future delays, including in the event of any further industrial action.
“Deliveries are currently taking place six days a week on days when there is mail to be delivered.
“Anyone who has concerns over the delivery of their mail should contact the Royal Mail customer service team on 03457 740 740 or via the Royal Mail website www.royalmail.com.”
The post delivery situation has been absolutely dreadful at Portslade Delivery office but it really isn’t the fault of front line staff, this is all the fault of managers failing to grasp the situation and deal with it properly. I have had several parcels delayed by more than three weeks (in two cases it was over a month). The managers say above, packages have to be delivered first but this wasn’t the case if the package wasn’t tracked. Royal Mail signed for packages were not prioritised at all and were left with the other “non tracked” post to be delivered when there was someone available to do so.
I sincerely hope the managers are now fully aware of just how dreadful the service has been and that it is never allowed to happen again.
As a footnote, the service is a lot better now and I really hope it stays that way.
My post still isn’t being delivered regularly.
Only yesterday the postie told me they are holding letters and just delivering packages.
I had mail posted to me on March 3 by several people.
Still not received.
How can that be back to normal!!