As you are no doubt aware I visited the Stratford Delivery office on Friday the 14th and met with local managers and the Sector Delivery Manager David Wright who along with his team had been working out of the Stratford office all week to resolve the backlog issues. David and his team were very forthcoming in explaining the issues they have experienced and the ongoing issues moving forward and I was delighted that there was no attempt to manage my visit or make sure that I didn’t look behind any particular doors etc. I was free to go wherever I wanted to and to talk to any of the staff (both local and drafted in) about the issues and the solutions that have been proposed. As you all know much of the blame for the current situation has been laid at the door of the re-organisation to routes that took place at the beginning of November. David informed me that this was then made worse by the first fall of snow and then an unexpectedly early and larger than expected peak in parcel traffic. He pointed out that parcel traffic peaked 2 weeks earlier than expected and that as a result they were not properly ramped up with casual staff in time. He also said that this year they had had significant trouble recruiting casual staff locally and whilst they needed over 20, had not been able to recruit any through the local recruitment agencies that they have to use. In the end I was told, staff had to be bussed in every day from Milton Keynes. The second fall of snow then added to the problems, he pointed out that due to Health and Safety rules they were forced to suspend deliveries on a number of days but he was at great pains to say that that this was a decision the organisation took to protect their staff, and that delivery staff were keen to go out regardless of conditions. Unfortunately even though deliveries were suspended, as a result of icy conditions, over 3 days the Stratford office had 22 accidents which involved 3 broken limbs. This obviously has a knock on effect on the delivery teams and causes more problems with staff shortages. The bad weather also highlighted issues with the new trolleys that were part of the modernisation and as a result of this Royal Mail are looking at how the trolleys can be redesigned to improve their usage in poor conditions. Again he was very keen to stress that the trolleys are here to stay though and are a vital part of their new ways of working. All of these issues and others have obviously led to the back-log of post and issues with more up to date deliveries and obviously the question everyone wants answered is when will it be sorted. Royal Mail head office had set a target of Sunday for the issues to be resolved, however it was David and his local manager’s view that close of business Tuesday would see the back-log (which stood at 41,000 items on Friday) cleared and the postal service back to normal and that that was a more realistic timescale. Therefore by tomorrow’s delivery you should hope to have received your full back-log and be back to daily post. In terms of what they and the organisation have done to resolve the situation I was informed that as of Thursday they had re-instigated daily deliveries, and that they would be carrying out deliveries on Sunday as well and that they now had 6 staff working nights when there was normally none. Additionally for the 2 days prior to my visit 20 managers had been drafted in from across the region to sort and deliver, and that they are in the process of recruiting 10 new staff who due to security vetting procedures would not be able to start until the 7th of February. They have also drafted in delivery office managers from other areas that have successfully implemented the modernisation changes to provide support and help. What was clear was that the organisation has learnt from its mistakes (for example they won’t be implementing significant changes before Christmas again) and that the delivery staff were doing all they can to get back on track in a very difficult situation. I have urged Royal Mail’s head office to ensure that the Stratford office is properly resourced both to get out of this situation and to ensure that it doesn’t slip back into a back-log again in the future (particularly before the new staff come on stream) and will continue to keep a close eye on what is happening.