The stupidity that is letting Royal Mail fail

‘These are the people who know our community and will be deeply missed if the “machine” is broken.’Photograph: John Morrison/Alamy

I fear that Gareth Roberts’ experiences are all too believable (Working for the Royal Mail sounded like an ideal job. But I discovered it’s falling apart, just like its vans, 8 April). Royal Mail delivery offices used to be havens of order, process and camaraderie where, before satnav, a delivery driver could call in to find out where Rose Cottage, Obscure Village, was – sometimes to be told that the owner was having an affair with the librarian so he should just leave the parcel there. Such value cannot be monetised, of course, so it can be dispensed with. Conservative policy is not so much evil as extraordinarily stupid.
Phil Green
Lewes, East Sussex

• What a coincidence that Gareth Roberts’ article was published just as I had to redeliver four letters to a neighbour that were wrongly delivered to me, and a further one to another street. This was after a postal famine of several days. Another neighbour had no mail for 10 days, then 12 letters (all 1st class) all on the same day. We have all lived at these addresses for more than 40 years. Please don’t anyone say that privatisation has nothing to do with this.
Jane Ghosh
Bristol

• I read with despair Gareth Roberts’ unflinching account of his work with Royal Mail. We are lucky to have a young man who delivers our mail in all weathers and gives me a smile and a wave through the kitchen window. He knows I’m deaf and I told him he was a star. These are the people who know our community and will be deeply missed if the “machine” is broken.
Jean Jackson
Seer Green, Buckinghamshire

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