Three Merseyside areas — Wirral, St Helens, and Knowsley — have been listed by Royal Mail as locations where the company is struggling to maintain its statutory six-day-a-week delivery service. The revelation comes as locals describe the service as 'very erratic' and 'chaos', with some residents waiting weeks for hospital letters and speeding tickets.
Affected Postcodes and Local Complaints
According to Royal Mail, the affected postcodes on the Wirral include Upton (CH30, CH49) and New Ferry (CH32, CH62, CH63). In St Helens, the affected postcodes are WA9 (south-west of the town, including Thatto Heath and Clock Face), WA10 (town centre and Eccleston), and WA11 (Rainford and Haydock). These three St Helens postcodes have been on Royal Mail's list since at least June 17. Several Warrington postcodes (WA1, WA2, WA4, WA5, WA55) also appear.
Zandra Ellis, 53, from Billinge, told the Liverpool Echo: 'The mail is very erratic. You don't get any for ages and then there's loads at once. My mum and dad rely on getting bank statements every month, and they're often delayed. I very often get hospital letters after the appointment has been and gone.' She added that her parents, aged 90 and 86, are not tech-savvy and rely on Royal Mail, saying 'that generation is being left behind.'
Paul Warner, 75, from Huyton, said: 'It's been erratic. My daughter has sent me letters First Class that have taken a week to arrive. Critical services like Royal Mail and utilities should be nationalised, and be run in the interests of the people rather than shareholders. Deliveries of letters are very rare.'
Andrew Brady, 45, from St Helens, acknowledged that 'postmen do their best and work hard, but they could do with more funding.' However, Darren Frith, 55, also from St Helens, had a positive view, stating the service seems reliable and deliveries come daily at two or three o'clock in the afternoon.
Missed Targets and Regulatory Fines
Royal Mail has missed delivery targets for several years. In 2025/26, the company completed 77.4% of daily delivery routes against a target of 99.9%, and delivered just 75.7% of first-class mail within one working day of collection, against a target of 93%. Between 2022 and 2025, Ofcom fined Royal Mail a total of £37 million, with £21 million paid in 2024/25 alone.
Ofcom has opened an investigation into Royal Mail's 2025/26 delivery performance. Ian Strawhorne, Enforcement Director at Ofcom, said: 'A reliable postal service is vital to many people across the country. We share the deep frustrations of customers who have missed important letters because of Royal Mail's consistent failure to improve its service over the years. While the company is now making progress through its improvement plan, we will continue to hold it to account for its unacceptable performance to date.'
Under-Secretary of State for Business and Trade Blair McDougall stated in March that the government is 'absolutely committed to the universal postal service' and will 'continue to hold Royal Mail to account.'
Royal Mail's Response
In a statement, 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.'
Royal Mail's parent company, International Distribution Services Ltd, acknowledged in April that 'our service hasn't always been the standard our customers rightly expect and we're determined to do better.' In a March 2026 letter to the Business and Trade select committee, the company said: 'Everyone at Royal Mail is working relentlessly to improve quality of service. But the complexity of the situation we face cannot be overlooked. Fixing quality of service, sustainably, requires structural change and the deployment of our new delivery model is critical.'
The Liverpool Echo approached Royal Mail for comment on the Merseyside issues but did not receive a response by deadline. Previously, regarding Kirkdale delivery problems, a spokesperson said: 'We know how important it is that letters arrive on time... Nationally, more than 92% of letters are delivered on time and 99.4% arrive within a week, meaning long delays are very rare.'
