DUP MLAs Diane Dodds and Emma Little-Pengelly have held an urgent meeting with senior Royal Mail management to address severe disruptions to postal services impacting residents in the Lisburn and Banbridge areas.

The meeting follows weeks of complaints from constituents who have reported that essential mail is arriving several weeks late or, in some instances, failing to arrive at all. The delays have sparked particular concern due to the impact on time-sensitive documents, including bank cards, utility bills, and crucial medical appointment letters.

Diane Dodds MLA highlighted the distress these failures have caused: "For weeks, constituents have been contacting our offices about serious delays to postal deliveries, with post arriving several weeks late or not at all. This has included time-sensitive and essential items such as medical appointment letters, bills, bank cards and other important correspondence. These failures are causing real anxiety and disruption for people who rely on a functioning postal service.

"We met with senior Royal Mail management, including the Operations Director for Northern Ireland, to clearly convey the scale of frustration being experienced locally and the urgent need for decisive action to restore confidence in the service." During the discussions, Royal Mail management acknowledged that significant staffing shortages in the local delivery offices are at the root of the problem. To resolve the backlog, the postal service has committed to a recruitment drive, with plans to hire ten new delivery staff in Lisburn and eight in Banbridge over the coming weeks.

Emma Little-Pengelly MLA outlined the temporary measures being introduced to stabilise the network: "Royal Mail has acknowledged significant staff shortages in both Lisburn and Banbridge and the impact this has had on deliveries. We have been advised that recruitment is now underway, with commitments to recruit ten new postal delivery staff in the Lisburn area and eight in the Banbridge area in the coming weeks. In the meantime, Royal Mail has committed to using overtime and agency staff, with no overtime restrictions in place, to help stabilise the service.

"We will continue to monitor the situation closely and hold Royal Mail to these commitments. Given the impact on missed health appointments, we will also be raising this issue with the Health Minister to explore what additional support can be provided to patients."

The MLAs have vowed to maintain pressure on Royal Mail to ensure the promised staffing levels are met and that the delivery service returns to its expected standard.