MPs have called for a new Royal Mail scheme to be scrapped after customers experiencing the worst rate of on-time deliveries ever saw no sign of things improving.
People living in Tonbridge, Sevenoaks and Tunbridge Wells have reported waiting up to two weeks to receive mail following the trial launch.
The pilot scheme delivers first-class letters every day from Monday to Saturday, and second-class mail every other day from Monday to Friday.
It began in May at 37 delivery offices across the UK, including ones in Tenterden and Tonbridge.
But Tunbridge Wells MP Mike Martin (Lib Dem) said that towards the end of that month, he began to receive thousands of messages from concerned constituents.
Speaking to KentOnline, he said: “We started to get emails from people who were waiting for medical appointments or were trying to do a legal transaction, receive important letters from solicitors, and in some cases, they were taking two weeks to come through.
“When it starts to cluster and pattern, then you know there’s something wrong.”
The politician spoke to MP for Sevenoaks Laura Trott (Con) and Tonbridge MP Tom Tugendhat (Con), who had also noticed similar spikes.
“That’s when we started digging into why this has happened, and we found out about this new pilot scheme.”
Royal Mail said the scheme would make it more efficient while protecting the choice of price, speed and reliability for people.
A spokesperson for the delivery service said: “The pilots are designed to ensure we have the right processes in place if Ofcom makes any changes to the Universal Service following its review.
“They are an important way for us to test how changes could work in practice.
“It is still early days – the pilot in Tonbridge began in mid-May – but it is providing valuable insight and we are monitoring it closely.
“We are committed to providing a reliable service for our customers and if any areas for improvement are identified we will work locally to address them.
A recent Quality of Service Report found that the TN postal area was already one of the worst-performing regions in the country, with just 67% of first-class mail being delivered on time between 2024 and March 2025.
For context, Royal Mail has an on-time target of 95% for this type of delivery.
This year’s on-time delivery rate is the worst reported for the area, including during the pandemic, since records began in 2007.
But the pilot scheme doesn’t seem to have made things any better. Mr Martin said: “My sense is that probably when Royal Mail says efficient, what they mean is reducing their costs.
“And what they mean is making their operations more efficient, not the postal service more efficient.
“That’s my sense of it, because as they’ve instituted this, the actual delivery of the services has got worse.”
Mr Martin, Ms Trott and Mr Tugendhat have written a letter to communications regulator Ofcom calling for the scheme, which is “severely impacting” their communities, to be scrapped and prevent it from being rolled out in other locations.
The letter says: “We understand that fewer people rely on letters each year and that, with the piloted reforms, Royal Mail is trying to streamline its services to accommodate this.
“However, for residents without access to digital alternatives, dependable postal delivery remains a crucial part of their lives.”
Speaking on what the solution might be, Mr Martin said: “Our job here is to highlight the concerns of our constituents and get them to look again – it’s up to them to tap in.
“I obviously don’t know the minute details of a delivery processing system – neither does Tom, neither does Laura – but what we’re saying is ‘You’ve tried this, it hasn’t worked, so why don’t we look again at it, and see is there another way of doing this?’
“If not, then can we go back to the old model, please?”
A spokesperson for Royal Mail said: “Across the UK, our latest published results show the vast majority of First Class letters arrive the next working day, with 92.3% delivered within two days.
“However, we recognise that performance in some areas, including parts of Tonbridge, has fallen short. Any delivery issues people experience are due to ongoing recruitment challenges which we are working hard to address.
“We understand how important reliable and timely deliveries are, especially for urgent or time-sensitive items.”
The spokesperson added the on-time delivery rate data for 2024 to 2025 covers up to the end of March, which is before the pilot scheme began in mid-May.
