'Royal Mail is not delivering letters' - Shropshire MP demands explanation after mail fails to reach Shifnal, Albrighton and Newport
Letters are taking up to two weeks to be delivered in parts of east Shropshire, an MP has said.
Mark Pritchard, MP for The Wrekin, said he had received a number of complaints about letters not being delivered in areas of Shifnal, Albrighton and Newport.
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Royal Mail acknowledged some delays to the post over the past week caused by staff sickness, but said it did not recognise claims of delays of two weeks.
Mr Pritchard has written to the chief executive of Royal Mail, Alistair Cochrane, calling for an urgent investigation into the matter.
"This has been going on for some days now, in fact, a couple of weeks in some areas," he said.
"I've written to the chief executive of Royal Mail asking for an urgent investigation as to why this is happening.
"People are waiting for replies in letter form for hospital appointments, GP responses, all sorts of job application responses and whatever it might be, letters are vital."
Mr Pritchard added that the price of stamps were now 'very expensive'.
He said he expected Royal Mail's senior management to intervene and deal swiftly with the problem.
"My constituents deserve better," Mr Pritchard added.
"It's not the fault of local postmen and women. They do a fantastic job through all weathers and all situations, and I'm grateful to them in the local post offices and in the sorting offices, but the Royal Mail management need to intervene and sort this out and get the backlog cleared and get delivering letters once again to my constituents."
A Royal Mail spokeswoman said: “Recent severe weather conditions and an increase in sickness absence have had an impact on deliveries to some addresses in the last week. We apologise for any inconvenience caused, and our posties are going above and beyond to ensure daily deliveries resume as quickly as possible.”
