Christmas cards and cancer letters: Royal Mail’s forgotten street ‘crippled’ without post

Residents living in a street which has been plagued by months-long postal problems have been left without vital mail that is constantly delayed.

The South London Press reported on Royal Mail’s forgotten street in Landells Road in East Dulwich in November, when neighbours told of essential post from the NHS being delayed.

But the street’s residents this week said nothing had changed, and that Christmas was affected by delayed cards and gifts.

“It hasn’t got any better,” said Daniel Sleat, 36, who spent his Christmas worrying about results from a cancer check-up that was delayed.

“My cancer report was three-and-a-half weeks’ delayed,” he said. “Thankfully the results were negative but it’s incredibly frustrating. There are other results for medical tests that I’m still waiting for.

“The worst is knowing it exists somewhere and you could know but you’re just waiting.

“Unless you’re waiting for something specific you don’t realise how reliant we are on post. It has been crippling without it.”

Mr Sleat said all his Christmas cards arrived in one go at the end December – a month after they had been sent.

And he was not alone, as other residents complained of missing cards, including Kristy Luxford, whose 10-year-old son did not receive a single birthday card as a result of the delays.

“It’s a real shame, receiving the cards after the fact just isn’t the same,” the mother said. “He also has autism and this is a real trigger for him.

“I’ve had to redirect all my post to my office and it arrives perfectly on time, which just goes to show it’s not the Royal Mail, it’s our sorting office.”

Landells Road residents said the postal problems began when the East Dulwich sorting office closed in 2018 and merged with the Peckham branch in Highshore Road.

Another resident, Mandy Thompson, 59, claimed she had been to the Peckham office to find out about her post and was told by a postman that he was a Peckham postman, not a Dulwich postman, and no one wanted to walk to their street to deliver post.

“My son went to collect his post and said the woman at the office told him there were 20 crates of post just for our street waiting to be sorted,” said Ms Thompson. “We’ve been having the same issues for three years.

“I’m very stressed. It’s raising my blood pressure. I’m waiting for a delayed hospital letter about a serious condition. There are Christmas presents still missing and my credit card statements. I can’t tell you how stressful it is.

“Now when I order something online I make sure it’s not being delivered by Royal Mail.”

Royal Mail has been contacted for comment.

Pictured top: Daniel Sleat receives his backlog of post (Picture: Daniel Sleat)