Royal Mail whistleblower says West Berkshire service in crisis

A FORMER postal worker has claimed the service in West Berkshire is in crisis.

The whistleblower's warnings come amid ongoing delays to deliveries in the district following the coronavirus outbreak.

But the former employee at a local delivery office says it has gone from having one of the best delivery records in the South East to the worst, while others are similarly understaffed.

The man, who asked for his identity to be withheld, said priority was given to scanned and tracked items while letters – sometimes including important information such as hospital appointments – would be ignored.

He said: "For example, at Christmas during the peak period we were getting an average of 2,500 items a day which had to be scanned in.

"Lorries would turn up later than usual which had a knock-on effect on your delivery but these scanned items took priority."

He added: "Since the start of Covid and to this day any postman or woman would tell you it has been a nightmare at [the] delivery office.

"It used to be one of the best, performance wise, in the South East but unfortunately now it's one of the worst.

"We were told that the priority was for all the tracked items to be delivered each day [ahead of] letters even if there were important hospital appointments."

The whistleblower praised the efforts of the delivery staff but said the system was under funded and staff were overworked.

Meanwhile district councillor Phil Barnett (Lib Dem, Newbury Greenham) said constituents had been complaining about missed medical appointments due to mail delays.

Back in February he told the Newbury Weekly News: "This is becoming a serious issue.

"I've received a week's mail, including papers for my planning meeting last night.

"What’s happening to Royal Mail?"

Speaking this week, Mr Barnett said the situation had not improved and added: "There was a postman looking lost and when I asked him where he was from, he said he'd been sent from Swindon, so no wonder he wasn't sure of the route."

The issue was first highlighted by the NWN in January, after many people received no mail for days over the festive period.

One Wash Common resident, Jeremy Gildersleeves, didn’t receive his post – which included a wedding invitation – for two weeks.

Mr Gildersleeves said that although Royal Mail staff were hit by sudden illness, after reaching the third year of the pandemic, this "shouldn’t be taking anybody by surprise".

A Thatcham resident also raised concerns at the time over the impact delays had on an older family member.

At the time, Royal Mail blamed staff sickness in both Newbury and Thatcham delivery offices.

This week a spokesman for Royal Mail said: "Every item of mail is important to us, and we have reminded colleagues that the delivery, collection and processing of letters and parcels should be treated with equal importance.

"The vast majority of mail is delivered safely and on time.

"We aim to deliver to all addresses we have mail for, six days a week.

"In the local area, we have been experiencing some delays due to a high level of absence caused by Covid-19, in addition to some resourcing issues.

"We are very sorry for any inconvenience caused to customers who have experienced delays to their mail.

"As the level of absence caused by Covid has dropped substantially, and as we have recently recruited a number of new postmen and women, we expect now to achieve the high quality of service locally that customers are entitled to expect from Royal Mail.

"Anyone who has concerns over the delivery of their mail should contact the Royal Mail customer service team via the Royal Mail website www.royalmail.com or on 03457 740 740."