Royal Mail delivering signs of improvement in Newbury

Over recent months, many residents have contacted me about delayed or missed post across Newbury and West Berkshire. Thank you to everyone who has got in touch. Your experiences gave me specific examples to take directly to Royal Mail.

I recently met with Royal Mail to discuss what has been going wrong and, importantly, what is being done to improve things.

There are some encouraging signs locally.

Changes were introduced at Newbury Delivery Office around seven weeks ago. I was told that before these changes, around 17,000 items a week were not clearing the office. This has now fallen to 2,900.

We also discussed areas residents have contacted me about, including Nightingales, Boundary Road, Calard Drive, Scrivens Mead, and Kintbury. Royal Mail told me that changes have been made to address the problems raised in these areas.

There is good reason to keep the pressure on. Nationally, Ofcom fined Royal Mail £21 million after it missed both its First and Second Class delivery targets in 2024/25, when 77% of First Class mail arrived within one working day and 92.5% of Second Class arrived within three. Ofcom has since opened a further investigation into Royal Mail's performance in 2025/26.

The postal service itself is also changing. First Class deliveries remain six days a week, but Second Class letters can now be delivered on alternate weekdays. New reliability targets also mean 99% of First Class mail should arrive within three working days and 99% of Second Class within five.

I also raised concerns about the complaints process after my office experienced difficulties getting responses in some cases. The local Royal Mail team agreed to raise this internally. Residents experiencing problems should continue to report them through Royal Mail's complaints process, where complaints receive a reference number and can be escalated if they aren't satisfactorily resolved.

Most importantly, I want to say a big thank you to our brilliant local posties. They are out delivering across our communities every day, in all weathers, and the improvements we're starting to see locally reflect a lot of hard work on the ground.

There is still more to do, but these are encouraging signs. What matters now is making sure the improvements continue and that residents see the difference at their own front doors.

If you're still experiencing persistent problems with your post, please let me know.