A DUNDEE MSP is seeking a meeting with Royal Mail management and the trade unions to find out why first class deliveries in the city are lagging behind the rest of Britain.

Joe FitzPatrick greeted the publication of first- quarter figures for April to June with disappointment after Dundee recorded one of the worst rates in Britain for late delivery.

The four poorest performing areas in Britain for delivering first-class mail the next day are in Kirkcaldy, Borders, Dundee and Perth.

Mr FitzPatrick said, “It is disappointing that Royal Mail’s first-class deliveries in Dundee are lagging behind the rest of Britain.”

Across Britain, Royal Mail achieved 93% of first-class post delivered the next working day in 98 of the 118 UK postcode areas, meeting their UK minimum target of 91.5%.

But the figures revealed the target was only met in eight of the 16 postcode areas in Scotland.

Kirkcaldy and the Borders have 85.9% of first-class mail delivered the next working day, compared to 86.3% in Dundee and Perth.

Strike action in Edinburgh is blamed for the poor figures because the centre is the main hub for the areas in the east.

There has been a long history of problems in the Dundee East delivery area.

Only last month a survey in the DD4 area found that half of the respondents were suffering problems with misdelivered mail.

But Stewart Hosie, MP for Dundee East, said that talking about a “crisis” would not help the situation.

“I have had a great deal of complaints from constituents over the years about Royal Mail services in Dundee.

“Earlier this year I took the matter up with the Department of Trade and Industry, having previously had several meetings with managers of the Dundee East Delivery office, most recently with Norman Willis and with the director for all DD postcode areas.

“Having discussed all aspects of the running of the delivery service in Dundee with them I now believe that, apart from first-class delivery target times, the service overall is improving and figures elsewhere in the Postwatch report seem to bear this out.

“I have come to the conclusion that talking about ‘crisis’ in Dundee will not help the situation.

“I believe that the management are sensitive to the need to consult unions over all aspects of the service particularly over ‘trigger’ issues such as hiring casual labour and working hours.

“It must be possible to negotiate and avoid any future industrial action and improve the service.”

Tricia Marwick, MSP for Central Fife, told The Courier last night, “It is hugely disappointing that the postal service varies so much.

“It really is up to the Post Office to make sure that all parts of Scotland get an equitable service.”

John Manson, Royal Mail area manager for the East of Scotland, apologised to customers for poor service.

“Unfortunately, for the first quarter of 2007-08 our quality of service to customers in the east of Scotland postcode areas was below our usual high standard,” he said.

“This was because of a short period of unofficial industrial action right at the start of the quarter, which had a knock-on effect on the figures.

“I would like to apologise to customers in the area for any inconvenience caused by the unofficial industrial action, however, I can also assure them that the figure does not reflect the general level of service customers are receiving on a daily basis.”

Alan Alexander, chairman of Postwatch Scotland, said, “The message is clear—when strikes take place, it is customers who suffer.”