By David Clegg

A DUNDEE councillor said last night he was “hopeful” postal delivery services in Dundee would improve following meetings with senior representatives of Royal Mail.

Fraser Macpherson met the bosses—including the manager of the Dundee West Delivery Office—yesterday to discuss a “deluge” of complaints about poor service he has received from constituents in his west end ward.

Royal Mail has previously confessed to a “slight backlog” of post in its Dundee delivery offices following controversial changes to working practices which have seen industrial action from disgruntled posties across the UK.

The Communication Workers Union (CWU) is unhappy at the Royal Mail’s modernisation plans, claiming management are trying to impose the move against the wishes of the staff.

The new system is based on a set number of deliveries per hour and has seen posties spend less time in the sorting office and more time making longer deliveries.

Royal Mail staff in Dundee have mounted several protests at the moves—including a ban on working overtime—and this appears to have compounded the problem of undelivered mail.

But Mr Macpherson told The Courier he had now been given an assurance by Royal Mail that it was working hard to iron out any difficulties.

“This meeting gave me the opportunity to raise the many concerns I have received from residents about detrimental aspects of mail deliveries in the past few months and to specifically go over the problem areas with Royal Mail,” he said.

“The complaints have ranged over a number of aspects of Royal Mail service—late deliveries, lack of prompt deliveries, particular problems with packets and parcels, longer delivery rounds resulting in some mail not being delivered on time and difficulties in getting through to the sorting office on the phone.

“I do have to say that the Royal Mail staff did recognise that there have been difficulties but assured me that they are working to ensure improvements.”