Royal Mail has warned that many postcode areas across Wales are expected to experience mail delays this weekend. Disruption will affect areas including Barry, Carmarthen, Llangefni and Penarth on August 1 and 2. The delivery firm continues to post letters and parcels on Saturdays, and parcels are also delivered on Sundays, but homes and businesses across Wales will still see delays.
The warning comes as Royal Mail works to improve its performance after Ofcom fined the company £21 million last October for failing to meet delivery targets. The penalty followed Royal Mail achieving only 77% on-time delivery for First Class post and 92.5% for Second Class post during 2024 to 2025. The company is aiming to enhance its standards this year.
Royal Mail response
Jamie Stephenson, Royal Mail's chief operating officer, said: "We're putting significant investment into improving reliability and reaching these new delivery targets, but delivering lasting change across a network of this scale takes time. Universal Service reform is a key part of that, helping us adapt the network to reflect how people send and receive mail today while protecting the one-price-goes-anywhere service for the future. We have a plan to deploy the new delivery model to all delivery offices across the country by the Christmas peak period and have set clear targets for each quarter as changes are introduced across the network. Early performance this year shows we are tracking in line with the plan and moving in the right direction."
Local issues behind delays
Addressing the latest delays, Royal Mail said: "We aim to deliver to all addresses we have mail for, six days a week. In a small number of local offices, this may temporarily not be possible due to local issues such as high levels of sick absence, resourcing, or other local factors. In those cases, we will rotate deliveries to minimise the delay to individual customers. We also provide targeted support to those offices to address their challenges and restore our service to the high standard our customers would normally receive. We're sorry for any inconvenience and thank you for your understanding."
Wales postcodes affected this weekend
These Royal Mail delivery offices in Wales are facing delays:
- Abergavenny DO (NP7, NP8)
- Barry DO (CF63)
- Carmarthen DO (SA17, SA31, SA32, SA33)
- Ebbw Vale DO (NP23)
- Llangefni DO (LL62-LL78)
- Llanrwst DO (LL24, LL25, LL26, LL27)
- Mold DO (CH7)
- Mumbles DO (SA3)
- Penarth DO (CF64)
Other UK postcodes affected this weekend
Royal Mail also listed the following delivery offices across the rest of the UK:
- Ashington DO (NE22, NE62-NE64)
- Blyth DO (NE24)
- Brierley Hill DO (DY5)
- Calderway DO (WF12-WF14)
- Cambridge DO (CB1-CB5, CB21-CB25)
- Deal DO (CT14)
- Dudley DO (DY1-DY3)
- Frinton on Sea DO (CO13, CO14)
- Gosforth DO (NE3, NE13)
- Heswall DO (CH31, CH60, CH61)
- Milton Keynes Kiln Farm DO (MK8, MK11-MK14, MK19)
- Minehead DO (TA22, TA23 and TA24)
- Portslade DO (BN41, BN42)
- Rugeley DO (WS15)
- St Helens DO (WA9-WA11)
- Stalybridge SUDU (SK15)
- Stourport On Severn DO (DY13)
- Tipton DO (DY4)
- Tiverton DO (EX16, EX18)
- Wallingford DO (OX10, OX49)
- Wednesbury DO (WS10)
- Wolverhampton NE DO (WV11, WV12)
