Distress for disabled pensioner as vital hospital letters and medication delayed by 'intermittent' post service in Leighton Buzzard

A disabled Leighton Buzzard pensioner has been left in despair after vital hospital letters and medication were delayed because of the Royal Mail’s ‘intermittent’ service.

And she says her replacement blue badge – posted at the end of February – has still not arrived.

The elderly woman, who has serious health issues and who asked not to be named, told the LBO: “Deliveries over the past two weeks have been intermittent – even though there has been no strike."

Because of her condition, she needs to have regular hospital tests and visits. But she says letters from the L&D have either not arrived or been excessively late.

She said: “I asked the parcel delivery postman about the poor service. He said there were not enough staff to deliver both mail and parcels. At best I’m receiving two mail and two parcel deliveries on different days in the week.

"Yet Ofcom states that ‘As part of its universal service obligation, Royal Mail must deliver to every address in the UK every Monday to Saturday.’”

After several more days without vital supplies, the anxious pensioner phoned the Leighton Buzzard delivery office to ask whether her home help could collect her mail.

But she said the ‘unsympathetic’ woman on the other end cut her off, after telling her they were short staffed due to absences.

Which is when she turned to us: “I hope you can help sort this out because I’m sure many others are suffering as well.”

A Royal Mail spokesperson said: “We are very sorry to hear a customer has experienced a delay. We will be engaging directly with the customer and will be investigating her concerns.

“We aim to deliver to all addresses we have mail for, six days a week. At times this may not be possible due to local issues such as high levels of sick absence, resourcing, or other local factors. In those cases, we will rotate deliveries to minimise the delay to individual customers.

“We ask anyone with concerns about the delivery of their mail to contact Royal Mail customer service on 03457 740 740 or via www.royalmail.com.”

The LBO understands carers can also collect mail at the customer service point, but they’ll need their own ID as well as the customer’s ID.

It’s open Monday to Friday from 8am – 10am, and Saturday 8am – 12pm.