Now there'll be no post on Good Friday
THE Post Office has scrapped its Good Friday delivery service for the first time in 162 years.
It means that over the four-day Easter break homes and businesses in England and Wales can expect just one delivery of letters and parcels – on the Saturday.
Good Friday is traditionally treated like any other working day but this year 50 million letters and 300,000 parcels will remain in Post Office storage.
Postwatch, the postal service watchdog, condemned the move, claiming it breaks a promise to improve services.
And The Federation of Small Businesses said it was a ‘kick in the teeth’ for thousands of small firms who rely on a Good Friday delivery.
The decision is part of a plan by the Post Office, now called Consignia, to cut costs by £1.2 billion a year. But unions also condemned it as a ‘ridiculous panic measure’. David Ward, of the Communication Workers’ Union, claimed the move would deny 65,000 postal workers valuable overtime and could heighten tensions at a time when staff are planning industrial action over pay.
He said: ‘They should now be pulling out all the stops to prove they can still offer a decent service. Not only will this have an adverse impact on millions but add to the company’s negative image. Instead of ridiculous panic measures they should be looking at long-term strategies to improve efficiency.’
Mr Ward said union members faced a combined wage loss of almost £5 million because of the move – and would have their workload doubled the following day, when a single delivery is made.
Any strike would prove disastrous at a time when the service is already struggling to meet its delivery targets with almost one in ten first-class letters arriving late.
Consignia will replace the customary full postal service on Good Friday – March 29 this year – with a ‘skeleton’ service where post is only collected from mailboxes outside Post Offices.
But the decision to eradicate the service – which has existed since 1840 – will not affect Scotland.
A spokesman for Postwatch said it would call for a review if customers demanded it.
The move comes just weeks after Consignia backed down over plans to end early-morning deliveries to residential addresses, making millions wait until 3pm or later for their post, once business mail has been delivered first. This followed a campaign by The Mail on Sunday.
A spokeswoman for Consignia last night defended the Good Friday move. She said: ‘It makes sense to standardise services.’
Research by Consignia claims that out of 10,000 businesses asked about the plans, 95 per cent had said withdrawing the Good Friday service would make no difference to them.
