Locals in East Reading are becoming increasingly irritated as Royal Mail Gillette Way Delivery Office has significantly reduced its opening hours.

On a recent post to social media, Laura Blackburn shared the following statement:

“Anyone else a bit pissed off at the significantly reduced opening hours at the Royal Mail Gillette Way Delivery Office. 10 years ago it was open fantastic hours now it’s awful!”

The post office's new opening times are detailed bellow: 

Reading Chronicle:

Many took to the comment section of the Facebook post to express their annoyance on the matter.

One person wrote “It's about time Royal Mail invested in a local locker system like other parcel companies. So convenient to have that choice.”

In response to the previous comment, another user said “I wish courier companies would make sure they use wheelchair accessible shops when they do this, bit of a nightmare to get to a shop and find stairs to the door.”

A further person wrote “We used to be able to pick up at 7 before going to work. Or possibly at lunch time. Looks like we can’t do either now.”

A number of other commenters expressed that this just another issue within a whole host of others to do with Royal Mail.

One person said “Another nail in the coffin since privatisation. In a world where more shopping is sent via the post, this once great company decides to whack its prices up, change its delivery methods (three attempts without leaving it at neighbours or safe place and then the dreaded card to collect it yourself at crazy opening times) and do this.

“It's like they want it to go under.”

Royal Mail have responded with the following statement:

“At Royal Mail, we understand the importance some customers attach to Customer Service Points (CSPs) as one of a number of ways in which they can access our services.

“In May this year, we also introduced automatic redelivery of parcels the next working day across the UK for customers who are not at home when postmen and postwomen attempt to deliver the first time. 

“Over 99% of parcels are now successfully delivered to customers on the first or second delivery attempt. This is reducing the need for customers to collect parcels from CSPs. If a customer is unable to collect an item that we could not deliver, we have a range of free-of-charge options for customers who want to arrange for an item to be redelivered to their address or a local Post Office.

“To keep pace with the changing behaviour of our customers, and to ensure that resources are allocated to the most appropriate parts of our operation, we have amended the opening hours of some CSPs.

“Approximately half of CSP opening hours have remained at their current times. Although some CSPs are only open 08:00 – 10:00 on weekdays, all CSPs are open for four hours – 08:00 - 12:00 – every Saturday for those who are at work during the week.”