Chelmsford residents fail to receive mail for three weeks

People living in parts of Essex have been describing the impact of not receiving post from Royal Mail for up to three weeks, in a second spate of delivery problems this year. Householders in the Chelmsford postcodes CM1, CM2 and CM3 have gone without deliveries since 25 October.

The affected area includes Chelmsford, Hatfield Peverel and South Woodham Ferrers.

Andy Howell, who lives in Great Baddow, said he was "lucky" to get a postal delivery once every 10 days.

He said a letter from the hospital for a physiotherapy appointment for his wife turned up about two hours before her appointment was due.

"This letter was dated the first of November and arrived yesterday, 16 November. It meant that she missed her appointment, so we're a bit fed-up," he said.

"It would just be nice if they could do what they're supposed to be doing and deliver the mail on a regular basis, by that I don't mean every two weeks."

In Felsted, Michael Crouch had stronger criticisms.

"It's just shocking. I don't know how else to summarise it really," he said.

"Fortunately a lot of communication comes through email but many organisations including our bank, the NHS, still rely upon postal deliveries."

As well as going without his post, Mr Crouch has been waiting for new bank cards to replace those which expired in October.

"I want my post and I'd like compensation for the anxiety, the distress of not being able to use our bank cards," he said.

"I would describe it as wilful withholding of the post that's due to me. It almost seems like theft."

Maureen Naitby runs her Jazzie Stitches business in Little Waltham.

She said she had not received fabric for her sewing business, and her mum had not received any of her birthday cards.

"It's just disappointing because the postman we had before, he was delivering by 10:30 every day," said Ms Naitby.

"I run my business from home as well and it's a case of when are we gonna get our post?"

She wanted Royal Mail to try to be more flexible.

"If they could sort the system so we get the post at least every three or four days it would help and be better than nothing," she said.

In a statement, Royal Mail apologised to customers.

"We are experiencing some disruption to service due to resourcing issues which we are addressing as quickly as possible," it said.

In a letter published on social media the Saffron Walden MP, Kemi Badenoch, whose constituency includes part of the affected area, said she understood residents' frustrations and had met with the mail service.

She said she had been told of a number of "key factors which are causing the current disruption".

"Firstly, Royal Mail have undertaken one of the largest structural revisions they have ever done which has resulted in the revision of 145 routes locally," said Ms Badenoch.

"Teething problems with new ways of sorting and delivering has been compounded by staff absence, partly due to Covid-19, with a significant number of Royal Mail's staff at the Chelmsford depot currently off work."

The MP said Royal Mail had informed her it would be "deploying an extra 30 members of staff from neighbouring areas to help alleviate the issue".

She added that the company would also be bringing in temporary Christmas staff to start working from an earlier date "so posties can spend more time delivering and less time sorting".

Dave Joyce of the Communication Workers' Union confirmed the staff shortages were due to Covid control measures and route changes.

He said the workforce was doing its best.

"We've seen a 50% increase in parcels, a 100% increase in traffic, we're delivering 150,000 tracked Covid test kits a day, but we are human beings, and we've had clusters of Covid cases," he said.

"We will work our way through that and we will make sure that despite going into the peak period, people will get their Christmas mail," he said.

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