Shipley MP confronts Royal Mail bosses over “unacceptable” delivery failures

Anna Dixon MP for Shipley, has this week visited Royal Mail’s Bradford North Delivery Office to challenge senior management over what she has described as a “serious decline in local postal services.”

The meeting, which was also attended by Councillor Susan Fricker (Lab, Bingley East), comes after close to 100 individual constituents contacted Ms Dixon’s office during June and July alone to raise serious concerns about Royal Mail’s performance in the area, with the vast majority of complaints centring on severely delayed deliveries. 

During the visit, the MP and Councillor met with Richard Carter, Royal Mail's Regional Operations Director, along with Delivery Office Managers and representatives from the Communication Workers Union (CWU).

Ms Dixon personally handed Mr Carter physical copies of complaints she has received from her Shipley constituents, using them to illustrate the real and growing impact the disruption is having on residents, businesses and vulnerable people who rely on the postal service.

Speaking after the meeting, Anna Dixon MP said: "I have had a huge amount of residents from across Shipley, Saltaire, Bingley, Baildon, Wharfedale, Cottingley, Wilsden and more, contacting me over the last two months about this. These issues stretch back a long way, and they are causing real difficulty and disruption to people's lives.

"I made sure Mr Carter saw these complaints for himself, in the constituents' own words, so he could understand the scale of the problem and the frustration people are feeling.

"I want to thank the local postal workers and CWU representatives, who I know are working hard under difficult circumstances. The problems stem from structural and management issues, not the efforts of frontline staff.

"I would also like to thank Councillor Susan Fricker for joining me today. She is a strong champion for the people of Bingley, and I know her inbox has had its fair share of Royal Mail-related issues too. I will continue to work closely with her on this until our local residents begin to see a genuine improvement.

"Royal Mail has a duty to provide a reliable service to all across the Shipley constituency, and there is clearly work to do to meet that standard. I have been firm with Royal Mail that this needs to happen, and it needs to happen quickly."

Councillor Fricker added: “I am grateful to Anna Dixon MP for being very proactive in ensuring that the concerns of Bingley residents about the sometimes significant and irregular delays in post deliveries in Bingley have been raised with Royal Mail. 

“I am pleased that Royal Mail has acknowledged that the service has not been good enough, has provided an explanation, and has committed to improving the service over the next few weeks. I know that Anna will continue to hold Royal Mail to account on behalf of the residents of Bingley.”