Residents in East Dulwich say the postal service is poor, with one family even claiming they only get their post on Sundays ‘if at all’, despite Royal Mail claiming to have taken on thousands more staff nationally.
Sean Crawford, who lives in East Dulwich said it has been ‘bad’ ever since the sorting office on Silvester Road closed and merged with the Peckham branch in 2018.
“Everyone in East Dulwich is aware of how bad the postal service is,” he told us “Since the sorting office closed it has gone from bad to worse.”
The local dad continued: “If we do get the post, we only get it on Sundays – which makes no sense.”
He reported having missed important letters, including one from a solicitor that ‘never arrived.’ “It was my son’s birthday recently and he got no cards even though my family had all sent them – we still haven’t received them weeks later.”
“We just find it unbelievable.”
On the East Dulwich Forum, there are hundreds of comments reporting problems with receiving mail. The apparent slow delivery times have even caused residents to ask if there was a strike at times when there wasn’t.
Royal Mail customers going postal after office moves from Dulwich to Peckham
A Facebook user wrote: “Has anyone else not been receiving any post from Royal Mail? Is there a strike on?”
Another resident, Richard Aldwinckle added: “There are clearly not enough posties – our post lady has a huge area she has to cover alone.”
Despite this, Royal Mail claims to have recently made ‘extensive efforts’ to improve the service – including employing thousands more postpeople.
A Royal Mail spokesperson said: “We are committed to restoring our quality of service to our customers. We have plans in place and dedicated teams responsible for improving deliveries in East Dulwich and at our delivery offices nationwide.
“Over the last 12 weeks, we have recruited around 6,000 postmen and women and are continuing to recruit [around] 500 permanent positions a week in delivery. To support the health of our employees and assist them in their return to work, we have introduced a wellbeing programme which provides colleagues with free, confidential, and independent healthcare support, including unlimited 24/7 access to an online GP.
“In the lead-up to Christmas, we are taking on 16,000 temporary workers, more vehicles and additional parcel sorting sites to handle double the normal volume of parcels we expect over the period.
Residents hit out at Royal Mail over two hour per day opening times
“These actions plus others are already making a difference in some areas and we are confident that they will continue to improve the quality of service for our customers.”
Helen Hayes, MP for Dulwich and West Norwood, has been vocal about the selling off of the post offices affecting the service.
She said: “Ever since Royal Mail closed the SE22 Silvester Road delivery office, we have seen unacceptable disruption to postal services. I warned Royal Mail that the closure would lead to chaos and campaigned against this reckless decision with the local community.
“Royal Mail’s management has failed to take any long-term action since then to support their hardworking staff and ensure a decent level of service for local people.”
She added that she will be meeting with Royal Mail again next week to ‘press for action’ to fix local disruption before the Christmas period.
Helen Hayes MP: Royal Mail decision to close sorting office is just putting profit first