In early March, people living in Great and Little Eversden – and possibly two other nearby villages – just a few miles from Cambridge, noticed that their location had stopped arriving. When asked for explanations by Royal Mail, they were initially told there were no problems. Six weeks later, they claim that the company, in a series of emails to the affected villagers, partially revealed what happened, but refuses to investigate. It seems that after a reorganization of rounds outside the Cambridge warehouse, the reliable postman who served their area for years was transferred to a new round. Another staff took over and at that point the deliveries were over. The company apparently told villagers that an unknown number of mails had been found in a Royal Mail truck after an employee had “kept the mail from delivery” and that this staff member had been fired. He also said: “Any items that have been published and have not reached you, we must assume that they have not reached the Cambridge unit and have been lost to the network.” South Cambridgeshire MP Anthony Browne sent a letter to the company requesting a full inquiry after receiving “a disappointing response” – but to no avail. “All along, Royal Mail has been deliberately opaque,” said Susan Tacq, a retired academic who is one of those trying to figure out what happened to their missing position. “We had a letter delivered to our house during the three week period, but we were told by the company that all our mail had been delivered. “Throughout the village, bank copies, credit card bills, birthday cards and letters we do not know about have apparently disappeared into the air.” He says a villager had a parking ticket notice that did not arrive and had to pay the full 90 90 fine as a result. The results of another mammogram did not come, while the new passport of a third villager did not appear. Online orders for items such as contact lenses have been lost, leaving the community very frustrated. “The office of the CEO of Royal Mail told us that any items that were published and did not reach us must have been referred to the network. This is simply not reliable. Could reasonably explain the loss of some post items. The loss of mail of almost three weeks in about 330 households, thousands of items, may not have been “carried away”. If so, then Royal Mail is in even worse shape than this episode suggests. The company said it would not investigate – but why not? she asks. The villagers are the latest community to complain that their position has ceased, although in most cases the backlog is eventually surrendered. Residents in more than 120 postal areas across the country reported poor service during the Christmas and New Year periods. Royal Mail, meanwhile, received more than 1 million complaints from landlords last year, the highest level in a decade. Just a few days ago it increased the price of a first class stamp by 10p to 95p. The Royal Mail sent a statement to the Guardian Money that did not seem to cover some of the aspects of this strange epic and which – contrary to what the villagers say – seemed to indicate that the issue had been resolved. He said: “In this case, a route review in late February caused some delays in deliveries to the villages of Eversden, Harlton and Hauslingfield. We are very sorry for the inconvenience caused to our customers and now we have resolved the issues that caused these delays and we have delivered any messages that were pending from that period. We have restored our service locally to normal high standards. Anyone with concerns about the delivery of their mail should contact Royal Mail’s customer service team at 03457 740 740 or via the Royal Mail website www.royalmail.com.
