As this is my last column before Christmas I will talk about the seasonal topic of Christmas cards. Sadly I won’t be doing this with any festive good cheer, as I am soon to be having a meeting with the management of the Royal Mail about the state of the postal service in Ashford and beyond.
I have been having a steady stream of complaints from different parts of the area about urgent letters not being delivered. These include medical appointments, exam results and other correspondence which has been delayed, causing distress and uncertainty.
In a way I didn’t need these complaints from across the constituency because I can see what is going on with my own post. Too often it appears that I am getting something more like a weekly delivery than a daily one.
This experience coincides with many others, according to what I am being told. What is even more worrying is that this seems to be just as common in urban areas as rural ones, so the time taken to do the delivery does not seem to affect the performance.
As a result of all of this I will be putting some tough questions to Royal Mail. What is the cause of the drop-off in service levels? What are they doing to put it right? When can we all expect to see an improvement in our postal deliveries? How do they think it will hold up in the next few weeks, which are the busiest time of the year for them?
I will report back in the New Year, by which time we will all know what has gone on over Christmas.
Anyway, having got that off my chest, I would like to wish you all a happy and peaceful Christmas, and I hope that all your cards arrive on time.