Royal Mail blames poor service on sacked postal workers

Royal Mail have blamed a catalogue of missing and misdelivered mail on two now dismissed employees, who are alleged to have stolen mail. Churchfield Community Association wrote to Royal Mail asking them to investigate poor performance including:

• Parcels not being delivered despite people being in the properties at the time

• Post being tampered with including credit cards being opened and used.
• Share certificates, bank documentation, plane tickets and postal orders going missing
• Parcels being opened with items missing.

In a response, riddled with errors, that took 8 days to arrive, Royal Mail explained:

"I have contacted the delivery office manager who has informed me that there was a situation a couple of weeks ago were (sic) one of our delivery officer was arrested for theft of mail. Mail was stole (sic) from most of the walk and over 1200 letters un-open (sic) was found in his house he is now dismissed and being taken to court and the mail posted. The delivery office manager is now monitoring the mail in this area, so we are not expecting an (sic) further problems to arise".

A Royal Mail Spokesperson confirmed that two members of staff were dismissed before Christmas over allegations of theft or delaying mail and that one has faced criminal charges. He added, "We have a zero tolerance approach to any allegations of theft. However, it is important to put the issue in context. Our postmen and women at Acton delivery office work are hard working, honest and reliable and incidents like this are extremely rare.

"On average, something like 0.005 per cent of mail is either lost or stolen nationally. Acton continues to improve on its quality of service to customers in the area and this is reflected in the falling number of customer complaints in the area. If customers do have any concerns they can call our customer services teams on 08457 740 740.

The standard of the letter from customer services was clearly unacceptable and we apologise for that. The issue has been raised with the manager concerned."

Churchfield Residents Association now hope to hold an open meeting with local councillors, residents and Royal Mail staff to get to the bottom of the issue. Any local residents who have experienced problems, particularly since Christmas, are asked to email Philippe Bruyer. Details of the open meeting will appear on Actonw3.com in due course.

24th January 2005