Paddock Wood sits in the heartland of Kent and you may think of it as a typical town in south east - but there's a catch.
For some people living in Paddock Wood, along with parts of Tonbridge and Tunbridge Wells, it appears to have become what some residents have described as 'postal delivery hell.'
Laura Manuel, 42, has lived in the town for around 3 years. She told us late letters have always been an issue, but it's now affecting her health and work.
"There's been quite a few times the hospital’s called me, ‘You’re meant to be at this appointment’, and I know nothing about it," she said.
"I’ve missed medication that is delivered by Royal Mail.
"Physically that causes a lot of pain, but more so it’s frustrating because then I’m having to ask for help.
"I’m a 42 year old woman that shouldn’t need to ask for help."
She added that it's made her back condition worse because she isn't always receiving the medication that keeps it under control.
She said: "Because I’m then missing important medical appointments, it means that I’ve gone periods of time where I’ve not been able to work.
"You miss the appointment, you’re then put back into the waiting system. What should be quite a quick resolution then turns into weeks or months."
Some residents have tried to take matters into their own hands by sending a joint complaint to Royal Mail.
Father-to-be Tom Abbey said the Royal Mail delays have left the couple waiting for letters about their pregnancy from the NHS, including appointments for scans, blood test results, and important referrals.
"We’ve had quite a turbulent pregnancy anyway so we’re just very anxious about finding out about different results, but just found nothing," he said.
"So then I went on the Facebook community page as you do, to kind of question if my neighbours have been through the same scenario. And then found this whole massive problem."
Tom says he's not pleased with the response he had from Royal Mail, describing it as "quite a lot of fobbing off."
"It sounds like a lot of fake promises that have been delivered in the past.”
As part of a special investigation, ITV Meridian sent out letters to residents in Paddock Wood to test how long post was taking to arrive.
We wrote to 20 people with the TN12 postcode, sending each person one first class and one second class letter and asked them to get in touch with us once they received them.
We sent the letters out on the afternoon of Wednesday, September 17.
The 20 first class letters should have arrived by Friday, September 19 because they're expected to take one working day.
Our investigation found that only two letters arrived on time. The other 17 were late, with some taking as long as ten days to arrive*
*One person did not respond with their results.
Meanwhile, second class letters are expected to take 2 to 3 working days.
We posted them late on Wednesday 17 September, and with no delivery services on a Sunday, it's hoped that the letters would have arrived by Monday, September 22. But most of the second class ones were late too.
It means that after the first week, more than 40% of the total letters we sent hadn’t arrived.
17 First class letters arrived late
42% Total letters sent not arrived after 1 week
2 Letters not arrived after 2 weeks of waiting
And after two weeks of waiting, two second class letters were still missing.
Royal Mail told us that Tonbridge is a difficult area to recruit in, adding that more new build developments have increased demand.
A spokesperson added that Paddock Wood is a highly skilled delivery route, where many houses have names and not numbers.
Royal Mail was recently fined £21 million for missing its annual first and second class mail delivery targets.
They delivered 77% of first class mail and 92.5% of second class mail on time during the 2024-25 financial year, Ofcom found.
It is the third year in a row that the British delivery giant has been fined for not meeting its service requirements.
Ofcom said it considered the effects of exceptional weather events in its investigation, such as storms and floods, but found that Royal Mail still fell short of its delivery targets between April 2024 and March 2025.
The £21 million penalty was reduced from £30 million as a result of Royal Mail admitting liability and agreeing to settle the case.
Royal Mail said it acknowledges the decision made by Ofcom and will continue to work hard to deliver further sustained improvements to our quality of service.
Tunbridge Wells MP, Mike Martin, told us he's had a "long backwards and forwards" with Royal Mail about the postal delivery delays in the area.
"I met with them recently and they admitted that they’d had leadership and recruitment problems in the TN postcode, so across Tunbridge Wells.
"I think this is actually a long running problem. I do think we are going to see improvements, hopefully, they've promised me they are going to make those improvements. But I think it’s going to be a slow burn.”
A Royal Mail spokesperson said: “We are aware of service issues in Paddock Wood and apologise to residents affected.
"Our team in Tonbridge is working hard to improve service locally, with a new leadership team in place, new starters in training and a recruitment campaign ongoing. We have created four new delivery rounds in Paddock Wood to meet increased demand.
“Timely deliveries matter to us and to our customers. We are taking targeted steps to improve reliability, and we remain focused on delivering a better service for all our customers every day.”
