Hundreds of people contacted BBC Your Voice to express frustration over delayed mail that has had serious consequences, including some missing hospital appointments
Posties have claimed that rounds are being missed on a daily basis as they are stretched beyond capacity. The Royal Mail staff from different delivery offices say parcels are being prioritised with some letters left sitting in postal depots for weeks.
Hundreds of people contacted BBC Your Voice to express frustration over delayed mail that has had serious consequences, including some missing hospital appointments.
Juliet, from Crawley, warned that late deliveries of Royal Mail’s letter service recently have had very real consequences.
“I have had lots of important NHS letters for appointments arriving after the date,” she said.
Craig Anderson, from the Communication Workers Union (CWU) representing staff, said: “I’m not confident that the service is going to improve going forward, it certainly hasn’t since Christmas.
“Royal Mail is a company in crisis.”
Royal Mail has warned of potential service delays across more than 100 UK postcodes as storms and workers being off sick cause disruption.
It said: “Adverse weather, including storms Goretti, Ingrid and Chandra in January, alongside higher-than-usual sick absence, has caused some short-term disruption to certain routes.
“We want to reassure customers that the vast majority of mail is delivered as planned and understand how frustrating it is when post does not arrive as expected.”
Royal Mail added that, where delays do affect a route, it will move to bring in extra support to “restore deliveries as quickly as possible”.