Royal Mail delays have caused missed hospital appointments and unpaid pensions, MP claims

The Conservative has issued a fresh warning to Royal Mail bosses after a series of concerning cases raised by his constituents.

Speaking in Parliament this week, Mr Moore highlighted a number of recent examples from across his constituency which demonstrate the impact of ongoing postal delays:

“One pensioner, for example, waited more than two weeks for a new bank card to arrive,” he said.

“In that time, she could not access her pension and do the basics of her weekly food shop.

“Another constituent waited 10 days for a hospital letter to arrive. He is undergoing chemotherapy, so ended up missing a vital appointment.

“Distrust of the postal service has become so bad that one of my constituents hand-delivers documents to the court herself, unable to trust the system after receiving papers late in the post.”

Mr Moore’s intervention comes after his office received three separate calls in a single day from residents on Fell Lane in Keighley, all reporting that they had not received any post for over two weeks despite expecting important letters.

The MP met again this month with Royal Mail’s Regional Operations Director to press for urgent improvements, stating that his criticism is not aimed at postal workers “but at the management structures that sit within Royal Mail.”

He said: “The situation facing many of my constituents is simply not good enough.

“In just one day, my office received multiple reports from residents who had gone weeks without receiving post, with cases of missed hospital appointments, delayed bank cards and growing distrust in a service people rely on.

“I want to be absolutely clear that this is not a criticism of our hardworking posties, who do a fantastic job in often very challenging circumstances. My concerns are with Royal Mail’s management and the systems they have in place.

“There is a clear disconnect between what Royal Mail tells the public about delivery times and what is actually happening on the ground. That gap must be addressed urgently.”

Earlier this month, Royal Mail chief executive Alistair Cochrane, had suggested that “in some cases Royal Mail deliberately chooses not to deliver letters until a ‘batch’ of mail is ready to be delivered to that address”.

In a letter to MPs, Mr Cochrane said: “To deliver an efficient service, our letter sorting technology is designed to group letters together due for delivery on a specified day, ensuring they meet the target timeframe for the service used.

“This can mean several items arrive together in a ‘batch’ – but we would not hold back mail if that meant it would miss its target delivery date.”