Update on Post Delivery Issues in Cheadle from Tom Morrison MP

Cheadle residents are being let down by Royal Mail HQ
Residents across Cheadle constituency have been experiencing significant disruption to their postal services over recent months, with hundreds contacting my office to raise concerns about delayed or missed deliveries.
Over the past few months, I have taken direct action to hold Royal Mail accountable. I have been in contact with their Operations Director to demand urgent improvements, and before Christmas I visited local sorting offices in Bramhall and Cheadle to speak with staff and see the challenges firsthand. After I reported the hundreds of cases of slow or a complete lack of post deliveries, I received a very non-committal response from Royal Mail HQ, blaming staff illness.
As many of you will know, this is not a new or temporary issue. Our amazing local postal workers do a great job, but they are being let down by managers at Royal Mail HQ, who are pushing to compete in the parcel market, leaving post forgotten, for weeks at a time in some cases. I have written to Emma Gilthorpe, the Chief Executive of Royal Mail, Lord Grade, the Chair of OfCom and Daniel Kretinsky, the Czech billionaire who is buying Royal Mail, to highlight the poor quality service residents across Cheadle constituency are facing.
Now, the situation is set to get even worse. The latest proposals to weaken Royal Mail’s Universal Service Obligation (USO) are a slap in the face to everyone who relies on the post—whether it’s NHS patients waiting for medical appointments, small businesses dependent on reliable deliveries, or elderly residents who count on postal services for vital correspondence.
A Service in Decline
The government’s proposed changes would allow Royal Mail to cut Second Class letter deliveries from six days a week to just three, while also lowering targets for First Class mail. This means that crucial letters—including hospital appointments, legal documents, and business invoices—will take longer to arrive. At a time when local residents in Bramhall, Cheadle Hulme, Cheadle, Norbury & Woodsmoor are already facing unacceptable postal delays, further reductions in service are completely unacceptable.You can complete OfCom’s consultation on these proposed changes here.
Royal Mail executives have repeatedly mismanaged this vital service, all while raising costs for customers and slashing service standards. Small businesses, which have already been hit by a crippling National Insurance hike, will now face even more pressure due to unreliable postal deliveries. It is simply unfair to hollow out our postal services instead of fixing the underlying problems.
Holding Royal Mail to Account
I will continue to push for reliable postal services for Cheadle residents and will not allow these latest cuts to go unchallenged. I am calling on the government and Royal Mail to rethink these damaging proposals and ensure that our postal services are protected.