Information about postal services in South and South West England: Determination under section 58 of the Postal Services Act - 7 December 2001
On Thursday 6 December 2001, in a determination, Postcomm:
- Ruled that Consignia need not comply with the notice served on it by Postwatch under section 58(6) of the Act on the grounds that it was not reasonable to require information in respect of all 14 postcode areas,
- Concluded that it would have been reasonable for Postwatch to require that Consignia provide such information for the four postcodes where there was evidence of ongoing service failure, and
- Recommended that Consignia should now do so
Postcomm is very concerned about the reports of service failure, and has written to Consignia to express its concern. It has also asked Postwatch urgently to undertake any further investigation necessary to establish whether there is a significant ongoing service failure in the areas where it had received complaints, so that Postcomm can take enforcement action if that is necessary.
Background:
Postal services in four postcode areas of the south of England have been poor for some time – for example some customers have complained of getting no deliveries for four days.
Postwatch took up complaints it had received with Consignia. The complaints centred on four postcode areas – PO (Portsmouth), SN (Swindon), RG (Reading) and BA (Bath). Other towns within these postcodes from which complaints were also received included Bognor Regis, Fareham and Southsea, all within the PO postcode and Wokingham in the RG postcode.
Consignia’s response to these complaints led Postwatch to believe that many of the problems might be due to recruitment difficulties and might therefore be ongoing and more widespread. Postwatch served an information notice on Consignia asking for details of daily postal delivery failures in 14 postcode areas, covering the whole of south and south west England.
Consignia asked Postcomm to determine, under section 58 (6) of the Postal Services Act 2000 whether it was reasonable for it to be required to provide the information requested, in the form required by Postwatch.
