I received quite a speedy reply from the ‘High Profile Case Unit’ of the Royal Mail in response to my letter to their Chief Executive, Moya Greene, about the very poor postal service being received in the Ward.
This is in marked contrast to the lack of response I have experienced in other areas recently, notably from the County Council, where at least two outstanding matters raised by me personally appear to have been ignored. (This is not the fault of our County Councillor, Colin Spence, who has done his best to help ).
As I think we already knew, the postal service has ‘reorganised’ delivery routes in and around Sudbury in order to make them as ‘efficient’ as possible. It is this that apparently has caused the sudden and noticeable deterioration in service that many of us have experienced in recent weeks.
Apparently we can read about ‘what change is happening’ in our area by clicking on www.royalmail.com/opsmodernisation *
The writer of the letter expresses his regret about any ‘concern’ or ‘inconvenience’ caused. He was particularly concerned however to read that there have been days when no deliveries at all have been received in certain areas. Of course the Royal Mail has a statutory obligation to deliver to everyone every day and so it is understandable that this is a particular worry for the High Profile Case Unit.
Re-organisation or no re-organisation, the problem is that that services have suffered, and there does not seem to be much prospect of the former quality of service being restored. What we are seeing here of course is an attempt to drive down costs in order to make the Royal Mail a credible candidate for privatisation in due course. It is a great pity that the body does not seem to be embracing the concept of ‘doing better for less’, which will be essential if it is to remain profitable as a commercial enterprise.
Or am I being too harsh? Our deliveries do seem to have stabilised somewhat, in that they arrive at more or less the same (rather late) time every day now. I do not think we have been missed on any occasion recently either. However what is absolutely clear to me is that letters are taking much longer to reach us. I regularly receive a periodical, which is published on a Thursday and which until recently arrived with metronomic regularity on Friday, having been posted first class from London.
It is Sunday today, and I am still waiting for my mag!
I have no idea why this should be. Has the item been held up in Sudbury? Or somewhere else in the system....who knows? Only the Royal Mail itself.
IF YOU ARE STILL HAVING PROBLEMS WITH YOUR DELIVERIES PLEASE LET ME KNOW. THE ROYAL MAIL IS PARTICULARLY ‘CONCERNED’ TO KNOW IF YOU THINK YOU HAVE NOT RECEIVED A DELIVERY WHEN YOU SHOULD
*Don’t bother at the moment however, since the page is ‘being updated’.
