Royal Mail troubles continue - staff 'walking out on a daily basis' but service says it is recruiting

Royal Mail (RM) told Banbury MP Victoria Prentis that they have recruited seven staff. However the business owner has told the Banbury Guardian posties say the Banbury sorting office is 21 people short and people walking out every day at the Merton Street operation.

Mrs Prentis said she had received complaints from a number of areas that are not getting acceptable mail deliveries, naming Ruscote, Easington, Neithrop, Drayton and Bloxham. Recent reports suggest Warmington and Horley have not received mail for three weeks and areas of Banbury are getting only two deliveries per week.

The proprietor, who operates a business sending goods by post, said they were forced to cross town to take their parcels to the sorting office, because they were not being collected as contracted.

"I have a day job as well as a small business and don't have time to go to uplift the uncollected parcels, drive over to the depot and do their job for them,” they said.

"If I didn't fulfil my job, there would be words but they are getting away with this. I am having to explain to my customers that their tracked parcel is languishing in some depot and won't meet my 48-hour delivery promise.

"There are masses of complaints about lack of letter deliveries, especially to the villages. Some villages are having to travel into the depot to retrieve their mail. Posties are told to prioritise parcels, 24-hour and 48-hour mail in that order and not to worry about letters.

“There's a lot of unrest at the depot, staff are fed up with being taken for granted and then having to deal with the customer complaints. Even town centre addresses aren't getting letter mail.”

Another business owner said: “You have options with parcels, not with letters. Royal Mail has no competition.”

Mrs Prentis visited the sorting office last week to discuss constituents’ concerns.

She said: “Constituents have written to me over recent months to tell me they are concerned with the unpredictability of mail deliveries. Having made representations to Royal Mail since the summer, I asked to visit the office last week given the situation doesn’t seem to be improving in Ruscote, Easington, Neithrop, Drayton and Bloxham.

“I was pleased to hear deliveries are being made to the vast majority of addresses six days a week, when there is mail to deliver. I explained residents are most worried they are missing hospital appointments. I was reassured to hear the team have a system in place for flicking through the mail as soon as it arrives to pull out NHS letters to ensure they are delivered as a priority.

“I was told recent challenges have arisen from the loss of some experienced staff which has led to knowledge gaps in those areas most affected. With unemployment so low locally, the Customer Operations Lead has found recruiting replacements challenging. Although seven new postmen and women have been onboarded in the past few months, the team are looking to fill more positions. If you know someone who might be looking for a new opportunity, please do direct them to: https://jobs.royalmailgroup.com/.”

Royal Mail has been asked to respond.