Islanders picking up own mail as staffing crisis hits

A crisis has hit Royal Mail deliveries on Islay as a severe staff shortage put ‘intolerable’ pressure on posties, writes Sandy Neil

Islanders are facing weeks of waiting for mounting mail, or having to pick it up from Port Ellen Delivery Office.

Last month a second-class letter posted from Bowmore’s hospital took over a fortnight to arrive at an islander’s home in Port Ellen. Another letter, from a mainland hospital, took over a week, costing the recipient that appointment. ‘I will have to wait another four months,’ they said.

Kintyre and the Islands councillor Alastair Redman, who lives on Islay, said on Monday October 31 that he had not had any mail in two weeks. His father had not had any in three. The next day, the former subpostmaster in Portnahaven received eight first- and second-class letters, in which the oldest was mailed over a month ago on Monday September 26.

‘Some of them had more recent dates, which is indicative of them being stacked up,’ Councillor Redman said. ‘They all arrived on the same day. First or second class is not making any difference.’

On the island’s Facebook page, on Friday October 28, a post giving ‘Islay mail info’ said: ‘We know how frustrated people are with the current situation regarding delivery of mail on Islay.

‘What you may not be aware of, however, is the fact that we are severely short staffed and simply do not have the numbers required to complete all the delivery routes on any given day. Until such time as we have any new employees starting, this will continue to be the case.

‘To try to somewhat resolve this we will sort all the mail tomorrow morning (Saturday) into delivery routes and people can come to the office and collect any mail they are waiting on and that we have ... we are sorry for all the inconvenience but the pressure on staff still here is becoming intolerable and this is our only solution at present.’

A Royal Mail spokesperson said: ‘We do not operate a policy of requiring customers to collect their own mail on Islay. We are very sorry for any recent delays. We have been affected by some resourcing issues locally, which we are in the process of addressing.’