Portslade post concerns continue

Royal Mail is still failing to deliver post regularly to a large part of Portslade, a councillor said.

Independent councillor Peter Atkinson, who represents North Portslade, said that he had been raising the issue of delayed postal deliveries from the Boundary Road sorting office since last Christmas.

In May this year, Royal Mail was investigated by Ofcom, Britain’s communications regulator, over its failure to meet performance targets nationally.

Councillor Atkinson has asked Royal Mail to come clean over what streets, roads and estates are being regularly missed and also what their plans were to urgently deal with the problem.

Councillor Atkinson said: “It is totally unacceptable. I have residents who don’t receive mail for weeks at a time, sometimes over a month.

“Not everyone uses the internet or email and for some residents the result of non-receipt of mail can be very serious.

“Our local MP, Peter Kyle, is also involved which is really helpful but in all conscience I can’t just ignore these comments from residents.”

Residents in North Portslade have been reporting to Councillor Atkinson about the effects of postal delays.

One complaint said: “I had a delivery on (Saturday) 9 September and, in the 12 letters, there was a letter from a hospital dated (Thursday) 24 August for my appointment on 10 September.

“I’ve had to make urgent contact with the hospital to explain why I hadn’t confirmed the appointment.”

Another complaint said: “I live and work in Portslade. We had a delivery at work today (Saturday 9 September). The franked mail from one of our suppliers was dated (Monday) 14 August.”

Ofcom rules state that, excluding the Christmas period, Royal Mail is required to deliver 93 per cent of first class mail within one working day of collection, deliver 98.5 per cent of second class mail within three working days of collection and complete 99.9 per cent of delivery routes on each day that a delivery is required.

The Royal Mail said: “We are committed to restoring our quality of service to our customers.

“We have plans in place and dedicated teams responsible for improving deliveries in Portslade 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 about 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.”