ROYAL MAIL flattens rumours of strikes, as Orford residents report not having received post in over a week.

The national delivery branch has faced backlash in recent months for its decline in service.

Residents in the Orford area have been among those who have noticed the inconsistency in delivery of their post, with many wondering if postal workers were on strike.

One resident reported having not received any post in a week on a Facebook community page last week.

They said: “Has anyone else not had any post delivered all week? Is there a Royal Mail strike on or am I just missing something?”

The thread was inundated with responses from other resident who had also experienced a delay in receiving post or had been receiving a bulk of letters and parcel on one day each week.

Another resident said: “I’m waiting for a letter from the hospital. No post all week, I was thinking the same thing, are they on strike?”

Meanwhile residents in Woolston also reported having not received any post throughout last week.

One unhappy local said: “My birthday was on Saturday and just received cards today (the following Saturday) along with four other letters, it’s a joke what’s going on?”

Royal Mail have resigned the issue as being caused by ‘higher levels of vacancies and sick absence than usual’.

They are therefore using a rotational delivery service in some parts of Warrington to ensure residents receive post at least once a fortnight while staff shortages are high.

A spokesperson from the organisation said: “There are delays in the area caused by higher levels of vacancies and sick absence than usual.

"We are currently rotating deliveries so residents who have post to be delivered will receive it at least every other day.

“We are actively recruiting in the area and have had six new staff members start within the last two weeks.

"Agency workers have also been approved and will be supporting the delivery office and the additional demand over the festive period.”

It was announced by Ofcom last Monday that they were issuing Royal Mail with a hefty £5.6million fine for ‘failing to meet its First and Second class delivery targets’ for the year.

Ofcom stated that the organisation is required to deliver 93 per cent of First class mail within one working day and 98.5 per cent Second class mail within three working days.

But in 2022/23, Royal Mail’s reported performance results showed that it had only delivered 73.7 per cent of First Class mail on time and 90.7 per cent of Second Class mail on time.

Ofcom’s director of enforcement, Ian Strawhorne, said: “Royal Mail’s role in our lives carries huge responsibility and we know from our research that customers value reliability and consistency.

“Clearly, the pandemic had a significant impact on Royal Mail’s operations in previous years. But we warned the company it could no longer use that as an excuse, and it just hasn’t got things back on track since.

“The company’s let consumers down, and today’s fine should act as a wake-up call – it must take its responsibilities more seriously. We’ll continue to hold Royal Mail to account to make sure it improves service levels.”