MP meets Royal Mail executives after mail not delivered in Albrighton, Shifnal and Newport
A Shropshire MP has met with Royal Mail executives following reports that post had not been delivered in some areas since Christmas.
Mark Pritchard, MP for The Wrekin, has met with senior Royal Mail managers asking for an urgent investigation into why letters had not been arriving in large parts of his constituency.
This week he told the House of Commons that in some parts of his constituency letters had not been delivered since Christmas, and wrote to chief executive Alistair Cochrane calling for an urgent investigation.
Royal Mail has acknowledged there is a problem, but denied the length of time that letters were taking to arrive.
Mr Pritchard said he had a 'constructive' meeting with Royal Mail management, and would be expecting significant progress by the middle of next week
He said: "It's causing real anxiety. People waiting for important legal documents, banking documents, and, of course, responses from GPs and the hospital and many other documents and letters as well.
"I had a very constructive conversation with them. I pressed the case and made the case as strongly as possible."
Mr Pritchard urged constituents to let him know if the situation improved.
"I've said to the Royal Mail that I will go back to them, probably in the middle of next of next week, and expect an update as to whether the backlog has been cleared and the routine delivery of letters has been restored," he said.
"We've just now to give them time a few days, and to see whether they do intervene, whether they do resolve it, and if not, I'll be coming back and making another statement or some sort of comment in the House of Commons.
"I've also written to the postal services minister, it's not good enough, and I expect an improvement rapidly over the next few days."
A Royal Mail spokeswoman said: “Recent severe weather conditions and an increase in sickness absence have had an impact on deliveries to some addresses in the last week. We apologise for any inconvenience caused, and our posties are going above and beyond to ensure daily deliveries resume as quickly as possible.”