Villagers frustrated after Royal Mail deliveries stop for almost three weeks

theguardian.com:

The residents of at least two Cambridgeshire villages say they could have lost thousands of letters after their deliveries mysteriously stopped for almost three weeks. They have been left “hugely frustrated” and say Royal Mail has indicated to them that any missing items will never be delivered and should now be considered lost.

At the start of March, people living in Great and Little Eversden – and possibly two other nearby villages – only a few miles from Cambridge, noticed their post had stopped arriving.

When they asked Royal Mail for an explanation, they were originally told there were no problems. Six weeks on, they claim the company has, in a series of emails to affected villagers, partly revealed what happened but is refusing to investigate.

It seems that after a reorganisation of rounds out of the Cambridge depot, the reliable postwoman who had served their area for years was moved to a new round. Other staff took over, and at that point the deliveries all but dried up.

The company has apparently told villagers that an undisclosed amount of post was discovered in a Royal Mail van after an employee had “withheld mail from delivery”, and that this member of staff had been dismissed. It also said: “Any items posted that have not reached you, we would have to assume have not made it to the Cambridge unit and have been mislaid in the network.”

The South Cambridgeshire MP, Anthony Browne, has written to the company asking for a full investigation after receiving “a disappointing response”– but to no avail.

“All the way through this, Royal Mail has been deliberately opaque,” said Susan Tacq, a retired academic, who is one of those trying to find out what has happened to their missing post.

“We had one letter delivered to our