I RECENTLY received a letter from my local hospital (Airedale Hospital) regarding an important appointment. It had been 14 days in transit and arrived the day after the appointment.
The hospital is one mile from my home. Some people call Royal Mail's service "snail mail". This is now an insult to snails. Average speed for a snail is around 50 metres per hour. My letter averaged less than 5 metres per hour, closer to the speed of a glacier.
A recent birthday card sent from Shropshire to Yorkshire also took two weeks despite its first class stamp. Important documents which I am forwarding to my solicitor are suffering similar delays.
Royal Mail is utterly unfit for purpose. And that's a shame, because my wife and I still love sending and receiving physical paper cards and letters from friends. Royal Mail has a statutory duty to serve us, with specific targets for delivery times. They are treating their customers with utter contempt, and it's high time they were called to account.
John Fletcher, Sutton-in-Craven
A Royal Mail spokesperson said: “Post is being delivered to this address at least every other day, and posties at Keighley Delivery Office are working hard to ensure any delays due to resourcing challenges are kept to a minimum. We encourage our customers to reach out directly if they experience any issues and we will happily investigate."