Ilkley MP Robbie Moore has called for action from Royal Mail over ongoing postal delivery delays affecting residents across the area.
Mr Moore said he has received a significant number of complaints from households experiencing lengthy waits for post, with some reporting gaps of up to two weeks between deliveries.
The delays are said to have resulted in residents missing hospital appointments, receiving important financial correspondence late and facing other disruption.
Mr Moore recently met Royal Mail’s Regional Operations Director at Keighley Sorting Office to raise his concerns and seek assurances that action is being taken.
He has also questioned whether Royal Mail is meeting its advertised delivery times for First and Second Class post.
Mr Moore said:
“This clearly isn’t happening, and therefore in my mind, this is false advertising by Royal Mail.”
He also raised concerns about the use of Royal Mail’s Economy Access service, which offers organisations sending large volumes of mail a five-day delivery window.
Mr Moore said:
“There is also a separate problem here as it seems some organisations are using this cheaper ‘non-urgent economy access service’ to deliver urgent letters.”
The MP stressed that his criticism was aimed at Royal Mail management rather than local postal workers.
He said:
“Our postal workers who are on the ground locally are working incredibly hard delivering our mail, sometimes in difficult circumstances.
"They are doing a great job, and it is unfair to point blame at them, my issue is with the management and logistical decisions that are being made with the organisation.
“I made it very clear to the management that the current situation cannot continue. It is simply unacceptable that when a customer purchases a product, that product is not delivered within the time frame it was purchased for."
He added:
"Royal Mail as a national organisation need to be open and transparent about that.
“They have assured me that changes and measures are being put in place to deal with this. But I keep raising this issue until positive progress is made.
"Our local postal delivery teams do an excellent job, and it is only fair that they are appropriately supported by national management above.”
Mr Moore is encouraging residents who continue to experience postal delays to contact him at robbie.moore.mp@parliament.uk with details of the problems they have encountered.
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