I see on the news this morning, that a new survey by Consumer Focus is showing that half of those ‘sorry you were out’ slips delivered by posties because things are too big to get through our letterboxes, were shoved through the door when people were in.

The response by the Royal Mail is to repeat the mantra that this is against company policy and that any post person found sticking these notes through the door without ringing – and judging from the report – without even carrying the parcel to the door – will be disciplined.

So – if the Royal Mail is so shit hot on clamping down on this practise – how come it is such a common experience? During this so-called disciplining – are posties noses growing longer?

Or is it the management – not really walking the talk? I am tabling a Parliamentary Question to find out how many disciplinary actions have been taken in each delivery office over each of the last three years.

The Royal Mail needs to show us that it is an exemplar service right at the moment when the battle for survival is so fierce. We love our Royal Mail – but we need them to shape up – otherwise they will write their own obituary.

The Telegraph has been doing some good work for all those people who find one of those ‘sorry you were out when I tried to delivery your letter/parcel’ but who were actually in!

Is it the case that we are all deaf – which is the line most commonly used to explain why a card was left – or are lots of postmen and women terminally lazy?

Maybe there’s another explanation. Maybe the time assessment for parcel or signed for delivery is not right. I have no idea – but it seems to me that the powers that be need to look into this sharpish as the number of incidents is beyond a rogue postie.

I have to say whenever I go to my local sorting offices – which I do generally at Christmas – the people I meet are hard-working and very good natured. So – that doesn’t add up to a workforce that doesn’t bother taking parcels out but would rather stuff a card through the door without ringing.

A recent local case of card through door while local resident was in which I brought to the attention of my local sorting office was met with a postive response about talking to the staff and providing extra training. But the volume of people contacting the Telegraph and the number of people I heard on a phone-in radio show with real examples of confronting the postie having seen the card come through the door is too many for it just to be training.

And I would have thought that basic training would be pretty simple. If you have a parcel, take it to the door and ring. If no one comes – well – surely the postman always rings twice? Hey – now there’s a good idea!

Feature in two stories in the Journal today – long queues at our Post Offices and opposing plans for cuts to our local train stations.

Visited Wood Green Delivery Office to meet the postmen and women who bring us our post all through the year – and at Christmas when the post bag must be ginormous!

There’s an absolutely wonderful atmosphere there – banter and fun all the way. The one very serious issue that was drawn to my attention, however, was the increasing problem they are having with tradesman bell times. Before, generally blocks of flats had access through tradesmen’s bells from say 7 – 10am. But the post office has changed its delivery times so that the last rounds go out even as late as 2pm. This is resulting in the posties not being able to deliver blocks – sometimes going back over several days.

Obviously people want their post ASAP. And obviously people don’t want the tradesman bells working all day as that would defeat the object of keeping people out. Keys are one possibility. A change in hours the next. Getting the post office to change its last deliver van to Hornsey & Wood Green – a long shot!

So that’s my task – to see if that conundrum can be solved – as it’s clearly a difficult but very important issue.!

And yes – my office made me wear the hat! Christmas cheer to all and thanks to everyone at Wood Green for being so welcoming – and at such an ungodly hour!

I’ve distributed a survey to every house across the Hornsey & Wood Green constituency asking people to record how long they have to queue at the Post Office.

I want to get a comprehensive assessment of the level of service following the spate of Post Office closures (five serving the area have gone). The findings of the survey will be presented to the Post Office and – if they show unacceptable waiting times – will be a good source of pressure to review the closures.

I’m particularly concerned that not only have five Post Offices gone, but that so far there hasn’t been compensating investment in the remaining ones – not only will people have further to travel, but they could also face long queues as more people are crammed into the same capacity at our remaining Post Offices.

If you haven’t had a survey yourself for some reason (or would like another copy), just get in touch.