'We couldn't tell the truth about dire island post'

Long delays for post in two Scottish island communities have left Royal Mail workers in tears as they struggle to deal with parcel numbers, a former postman has told the BBC.

Staff shortages left just three postal workers covering Islay and nearby Jura.

Jim Love, 30, is one of six workers who left the postal team in recent weeks because of "pretty dire" working conditions.

The Royal Mail said there had been recruitment "challenges" on Islay.

Mr Love worked for the postal service for three-and-a-half years and had a daily 135km (84 miles) route around the island to deliver the post. He left last Friday.

"It was a good job before the pandemic but when the pandemic struck the amount of Amazon parcels we delivered went through the roof," he said.

The parcels could be anything from bulk toilet roll orders to live tropical fish or black pudding for the butcher, Mr Love said.

He said he became demoralised by demands to complete the same postal round within unrealistic time frames - without any more than an hour's overtime pay.

Mr Love said there was not enough staff to manage increasing numbers of parcels.

Royal Mail, which was privatised in 2015, is the only company able to offer next-day delivery to Islay for companies like Amazon because it has a contract with Loganair to transport parcels from the mainland.

"The pressure is just too much for people to last any more than about six months usually, and that's been the case since the pandemic started," he told BBC Scotland.

"We were told repeatedly to prioritise parcels over letters because parcels take up more space and letters aren't tracked so nobody knows if they are hanging around for ages.

"It was demoralising seeing them building up in the office when you knew there were important things - like bank statements, hospital appointments, driving licences, all sorts of things that we couldn't deliver because we just didn't have the time to."

Mr Love said he was not allowed to tell customers why their letters were delayed.

"We felt like we were being dishonest to our customers by not being able to tell them why we were having to leave their letters in favour of parcels," he said.

"I've seen my colleagues in tears on numerous occasions or fizzing with anger - it's the way they cope with letting down their customers and not being able to do their job because it's impossible.

"I've heard of people that have missed appointments because the letter telling them about the hospital appointment was delivered to them after the appointment itself, and it was for things as serious as cancer," Mr Love added.

He said staff skipped breaks every day and sometimes had so many parcels they were squeezing them into their vans' passenger seats and footwells.

Mr Love suggested that the island postal service could be restructured to provide separate letter and parcel deliveries, or by giving shorter routes to staff.

Islay, which has a population of more than 3,000, is a mountainous island off the west coast of Scotland about 200km (125 miles) from both Glasgow and Belfast, accessible by plane or ferry.

It measures about 40km (25 miles) from north to south and is 24km (15 miles) wide, with two sea lochs separating peninsulas.

There are no supermarkets on the island and residents have come to rely heavily on online shopping, but the Royal Mail now has only one sorting office to manage increasing demands on the service.

Until recently most residents were accustomed to deliveries six days a week.

Islander Campbell McCormick, 67, said on Thursday that he had just received letters sent on 7 and 10 October.

"Sometimes the boat might not run for days in the middle of the winter, but we're that used to it that it's neither here nor there for us," he said.

But he said the current situation with no deliveries for three weeks was "a bit pathetic".

"We've just got to live with it," he added.

Alastair Redman, a former postmaster for the village of Portnahaven on the south west of the island, is now councillor for Kintyre and the Islands.

He said the postal service was "failing at every single turn".

"Royal Mail's management have a lot to answer for," he said. "Their frontline staff do a terrific job and they are out in all weathers, but they are just stretched too thin, and frankly they are not paid enough for the work they do."

Speaking to BBC Radio Scotland's Drivetime, he said: "Unfortunately we have had a very high turnover of staff on the island. It's no surprise - the conditions they are under would break many people.

"The working hours are long, they are not really appreciated by central management and they are not paid that well."

He said the cost of living was higher than on the mainland but Islay's "vibrant and dynamic" economy, which includes several distilleries, offered more attractive work opportunities for locals.

"There should be a degree of local autonomy and there should be different pay grades for different areas," he added.

He said when elected officials and islanders raised issues with Royal Mail they were frustrated to get identical "copy and paste responses".

Mr Redman received his first item of post in three weeks on Wednesday, but said his father had had no deliveries to his croft on the "backroads" in more than a month.

His brother collects his mail from the sorting office in Port Ellen.

"The sorting office is handy for people in Port Ellen, although they still should be getting it delivered to their door," Mr Redman said.

"There are lots of people who effectively have to drive from one side of the island to the other, but not everyone has access to transport. There's perhaps undue pressure being put on neighbours to pick up post for their friends and their colleagues, and frankly this is all Royal Mail's job.

"We pay our postage like everyone else and we should have the same service."

Royal Mail has brought some staff over from the mainland and is training new recruits.

The company said it was very sorry for the delays reported by some customers.

A spokesman said: "Given the challenges in recruiting on Islay, we are in the process of bringing in colleagues from elsewhere in Scotland and temporary workers to increase staffing levels.

"We expect this initiative to improve service levels for our customers."

He added that there was no policy "requiring customers to collect their own mail".