§ Mr. Snowasked the Postmaster-General (1) if he is aware of the dissatisfaction of both private and commercial interests at the lateness of a 9.30 a.m. postal delivery; and what steps he is taking to recruit more staff for the overspill area of Lichfield and Tamworth;
(2) to what extent the experiment, similar to that being conducted in East Anglia, for finding ways and means of speeding up postal deliveries, is being conducted in the overspill receiving areas of Rugeley, Lichfield city and the rural district of Tamworth.
§ Mr. MawbyThe postal services in the areas in question are being kept under review and we shall do our best to keep them up to the standards I mentioned in my letter of 23rd December to the hon. Member, recruiting extra staff where necessary. Since I wrote to the hon. Member, arrangements have been made for letters to be delivered at about 8.45 a.m. to the company about which he wrote to me. They will start in a fortnight's time.
The East Anglian experiment, which is designed to try out new arrangements for conveying parcel mails in bulk between main centres, is confined to that area. There are no similar arrangements in the areas which the hon. Member mentions.