Despite assurances from Royal Mail that the reported problems in Watford had been solved, Richard has continued to receive complaints from people in Watford who are experiencing problems with delayed post or missing items.
As such, Richard decided to do a practical test. On Monday 14th November around 50 letters were posted, first class from St James Park, London, post office to various addresses in Watford and Abbots Langley. The letters were sent to some of the people who had previously raised complaints about Royal Mail as well as others as a test. In the letter, Richard asked for those who received it to call as soon as the letter had been received.
The first phonecall we got was from a test letter we sent with the others to an address in Burton on Trent, which was received on the morning of Wednesday 16th. One individual in Watford received their letter later that day.
Since then we have received around 20 responses, around 4 arrived over the course of Thursday, around 10 arrived on Friday and more over the weekend. Around 30 letters remain unaccounted for.
Many people who received the letter remarked that they had been delivered without a postmark, and often in large bundles of post as they had not received other post in the previous days.
To make the test as fair as possible, all letters were sent first class in plain envelopes (not from the House of Commons)
Richard said:
“ Having had lots of people still experiencing problems with the Royal Mail, I wanted to test for myself the reality of the situation.
“These results prove to me that the system in Watford is still not working as it should be. As Christmas approaches, with an increase in post volume and the announcement that Watford will be one of the 9 dedicated sites dealing with the Christmas post, I am very concerned that people in Watford will not get the service they deserve.
“ I am arranging a meeting with Royal Mail, hopefully in the next 7 days to discuss this and other matters. Despite many letters between myself and Royal Mail with evidence of problems in Watford they are still telling me there is no problem anymore. My constituents and I deserve proper answers about this, and a real promise that these problems will be solved, and not worsen over the Christmas period.”