Ayr, Carrick and Cumnock MP Allan Dorans has won his battle to save Royal Mail Customer Service Points in Ayrshire.
Mr Dorans said he was “deeply worried” last week over the prospect of losing any in his Ayr, Carrick and Cumnock constituency.
His fears escalated when Royal Mail announced they were undertaking a full, nationwide review of their customer service points (CSPs) and hinted at closing an ‘overwhelming number’ of them at local delivery offices.
Mr Dorans warned: “Customer Service Points are an indispensable part of the service Royal Mail provides, and it would be a real mistake to close these down.”
The MP also wrote to Kemi Badenoch MP, Secretary of State for the Department for Business and Trade, urging her to intervene to stop the proposals.
However, Royal Mail has now decided to retain their customer service points.
A Royal Mail spokesperson said: “In November 2022 Royal Mail announced a review of its 1,200 Customer Service Points to determine the optimum number of locations following a 50 per cent drop in footfall since the pandemic.
“Having completed the first stage of the review and considered a range of options, we have decided to maintain the current estate of Customer Service Points as we seek to further improve our first-time delivery rates.
“Following successful trials, Royal Mail will additionally roll out automatic next day redeliveries for missed parcels in the coming months.
“This is designed to make it even easier for customers to receive parcels at home, without the need to travel to a Customer Service Point.
“This builds on Royal Mail’s introduction of a range of alternative delivery options for greater convenience in recent years, including free redelivery, delivery to a neighbour, the option to leave parcels in a safe place and inflight redirections through the App and website.
“As footfall continues to decrease, the next stage of this review will focus on ensuring that opening hours match demand.”
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