MP Praises Local Royal Mail Staff

5.12.00pm UTC (GMT +0000) Fri 17th Dec 2004

Vincent Cable with Mickey Gray (wearing Christmas hat) and Martin Ward from Hampton sorting office

After an early morning visit this week to staff at the Hampton, Teddington and Twickenham sorting offices MP Vincent Cable said that national stories about inefficiency in the Royal Mail tend to obscure the high performance levels and efficiency of local offices. Our local sorting offices are amongst the most efficient in Britain with delivery the day after post running at well over 90%.

Vincent Cable also said that "meeting the early morning shift quickly disproves any idea that being a postman is a 'soft job'. The men and women working in local Royal Mail sorting offices are up for work at 5.30am and then have a sorting job before going out to deliver - on the day I was there in the in the pouring rain. But morale was high".

Vincent Cable was tackled about press reports that the government planned to privatize the Royal Mail: "there is quite a lot of anxiety about the pension scheme and employment conditions. Employees seem to be bewildered by conflicting reports: the boss of Royal Mail says privatisation will happen; the government denies it."