One hour trimmed off the last posting time in central Marlborough as from next week

Hard on the heels of the recent increase in the price of stamps and the (temporary) closure of the Post Office in the High Street’s ‘One Stop’ shop, you will have to be up to one hour earlier when sending that more expensive letter.

If you have regularly used the six-thirty last posting deadline when sending mail in Marlborough, or the earlier times out in many of the villages, as of next Monday (13 April) the latest time to catch the post will be moved forward by up to one hour.

Last collection in central Marlborough – High Street, George Lane and London Road will take place at 5.30.

“This is a permanent change”, confirmed Marco Oliveira, Marlborough’s recently arrived Delivery Office Manager.  

“It’s part of the Royal Mail Collection and Delivery Strategy” he added, explaining that  “A lot of post boxes are going on to delivery, so what is left we have redesigned the routes in the timeframes of collection”.  “We have issues collecting the mail, every day is a struggle, everyday it is a risk to comply with our use obligations, so the reason we are pushing this back to half five is to eliminate that risk”  he added.

In some of the villages the times won’t change.  But Marco Oliveira wasn’t able to confirm a full list of the changes when we spoke.  In villages to the West of Marlborough the last collection will be moved forward by one hour, whilst elsewhere in East Grafton or Wilton for example the collection will be brought forward by only 15 minutes.

This reduction in service for the general business and private user is set against the recent increase in the prices of first and second class stamps and the change of delivery times a while back when the early morning deliveries were phased out and late morning / lunchtime delivery became the norm.

Whilst the quantity of letter traffic is declining so is the level of service being provided by the Royal Mail, with little apparent effort being made to stem the loss of business.  “Like turkeys voting for Christmas” was the comment of one member of the team who wished to remain anonymous.