Council offers help to recruit posties amid delays

People in Dorking have been complaining about delays to their mail delivery

A council is offering to help Royal Mail recruit more staff after repeated complaints about delays to deliveries.

Mole Valley District Council lodged a formal complaint in September, after residents of Dorking reported missing important documents and sometimes only receiving one delivery a week.

The authority said it has now offered to share recruitment messages on its channels to help find Royal Mail more staff.

Royal Mail said it had no current vacancies in Dorking but welcomed any help the council could offer.

Bridget Kendrick, Mole Valley's deputy leader, told BBC Radio Surrey: "We have Mole Valley Hub, which has a store front in Leatherhead, but equally does outreach in Dorking, which does job fairs and drop in centres.

"There are all sorts of local community centres like North Leatherhead Community Hub, so we can signpost and give help.

"We're there to help, we want to solve this practically and positively for the good of our residents and businesses."

The Royal Mail has thanked Mole Valley District Council's help in recruiting new staff

Council leader Stephen Cooksey said: "In Mole Valley, Royal Mail have stated that it is working to recruit more staff to make up for vacancies and absences.

"While this would usually be far beyond our reach of influence, we will be approaching Royal Mail with an offer of us sharing messages of their recruitment drive via channels to help reach as many prospective employees as possible.”

On 13 November Royal Mail was fined £5.6m by the regulator Ofcom for missing its first and second class delivery targets across the country.

Royal Mail said there were no current vacancies in Dorking, but it welcomed any support Mole Valley could offer and encouraged the sharing of jobs it advertised locally.

It said postcode areas RH4 and RH5 were receiving deliveries at least every other day and it was working hard to improve the service.