‘BLATANT mismanagement’ of the Royal Mail was responsible for repeated delays in postal deliveries across West Somerset and parts of Mid Devon near Wellington, MP Rachel Gilmour said this week.

Mrs Gilmour called out the way Royal Mail was being run in the wake of a £10.5 million fine by postal regulator Ofcom for missing delivery targets for first and second class post, and the Government’s approval of a buy out of the company by Czech billionaire Daniel Křetinsky.

She called for the new ownership to put services for communities first.

Mrs Gilmour said the Ofcom fine was nearly double the amount of one imposed last year after similar delivery problems, and came as more than one-quarter of all first class mail arrived late in the year to March, 2024.

Ofcom said Royal Mail’s poor service was ‘eroding public trust in one of the UK’s oldest institutions’.

Mr Křetinsky has promised to keep Royal Mail’s headquarters in the UK for five years, prompting concern that he might not do so after that time.

Mrs Gilmour said: “It is clear that, despite the incredible work of our local postal workers, people across our community are being badly let down, from NHS patients waiting for appointments to families sending Christmas cards and presents.”

She called on the new ownership to ‘work day and night’ to turn around the situation in her Tiverton and Minehead constituency.

Mrs Gilmour said: “Thousands of us across Tiverton and Minehead depend on Royal Mail services every single day.

“It is extremely disappointing that Royal Mail has been found in breach of its delivery targets.

“It is even more concerning that this British institution may not remain permanently based in the UK, and that the watering down of services is still on the table.

“Royal Mail’s incoming owner and management must work day and night to turn things around for communities like ours, so that people get the service they deserve.

“I will be following this situation very closely.

“Ministers and Royal Mail executives must be held to account so that local communities come first.”