Christchurch residents face delays to postal service as coronavirus hits Royal Mail staff

CHRISTCHURCH residents are facing postal service delays as Covid-19 hits an increasing number of Royal Mail workers.

Today (Tuesday) the service released a list of 27 zones in England and one in Northern Ireland where deliveries and collections have been affected, including the town as well as 13 areas in and around London, Chelmsford in Essex and Margate in Kent.

A surge in online shopping orders made by residents during lockdown was attributed to the hold-up, as well as the virus’s toll on the workforce.

Announcing that deliveries and collections should still be taking place across the UK today, Royal Mail pledged in a statement that it was “working hard to deliver the most comprehensive and high quality service we can to all our customers, large and small”.

The statement continued: “Every single parcel and letter is important to us. Despite our best efforts and significant investment in extra resource, some customers may experience slightly longer delivery timescales than our usual service standards.

“This is due to the exceptionally high volumes we are seeing, exacerbated by the coronavirus-related measures we have put in place in local mail centres and delivery offices to keep our people and customers safe.

“In such cases, we always work hard to get back to providing our usual level of service as quickly as we can. Thank you for your patience and understanding.”

This latest disruption comes after Christmas mail in Ringwood was delayed due to two Royal Mail staff testing positive at the town’s delivery office. This resulted in a number of colleagues having to self-isolate.