Citizens Advice have confirmed that Upminster was one of the worst affected areas by letter and postal delays from Royal Mail over the Christmas period in new research into national postal services. Hornchurch and Upminster MP, Julia Lopez, and her team spent December making urgent representations to Royal Mail on behalf of constituents, who were suffering long delays to receiving critical mail.

Royal Mail confirmed that a review of delivery rounds took place last October and the implementation of the new delivery rounds coincided with a higher-than-normal rate of sick absence which caused additional pressure on the operation.

In light of this pressure, Royal Mail had temporarily rotated deliveries to many roads to ensure that the RM14 area was covered as a whole, and the disruption of services was spread across the postcodes, rather than just certain delivery routes.

Julia Lopez MP said ‘This incredibly helpful report by Citizens Advice confirms our frustrations and concerns around Christmas deliveries in our constituency. My team and I worked hard to highlight these problems to Royal Mail and I have welcomed their subsequent commitment to recruiting more postmen and women to be based at Hornchurch and Upminster Delivery Offices. 

I appreciate that the rise of sick absence last year impacted services, particularly with the Omicron variant, but have sought further assurances from Royal Mail on contingency plans being put in place so that RM14 is not as impacted should a similar situation arise again. It is clear from the Citizens Advice report that ours was one of the worst affected areas of the country and I do not want to see residents go through similar challenges again, particularly when some of the post includes critical medical appointment letters’