Royal Mail have been forced to make an embarrassing U-turn after councillors and local residents condemned their closure of an Aberdeenshire sorting office.
Postal workers have spent the last two months sorting mail in local car parks, resulting in residents receiving their mail late and wet.
But after a surge in complaints, Royal Mail have been forced to rethink their actions, allowing posties to now work under shelter.
The Ballater sorting office closed in June after Royal Mail claimed it was no longer fit for purpose, forcing workers to sort the mail and load their vans in a small public car park on Swann Place.
However, after meeting with angry residents last month, the posties are now operating from the Stagecoach bus facility just outside the village.
MSP Stuart Donaldson said: “I am pleased to see that Royal Mail have taken on board that their previous arrangements were unacceptable and glad that Stagecoach has been able to accommodate them.
“We must now keep an eye on the future to ensure that the Universal Service is not discontinued in rural areas such as here when the Royal Mail is able to renegotiate.”
Following concerns raised by Mr Donaldson, Councillor Geva Blackett and members of the public, Aberdeenshire Council refused Royal Mail permission to use the car park off Swann Place in Ballater.
Councillor Geva Blackett said: “Having seen items that required signatures being sorted in full view of anyone in a public car park I am very pleased to see that our posties now have somewhere not only away from public view to carry out their work but also where they can keep warm and dry while doing so.”
A Royal Mail spokesman confirmed the move.
He said: “Royal Mail is now transferring mail to our postmen at our new site at the Stagecoach bus garage in Ballater. This option was discussed with the local community and we have negotiated this move with Stagecoach. We were pleased of their offer of help.
“The new site offers us welfare facilities and the operation has been working well since we started on Monday August 1.
“The focus of Royal Mail and its postmen locally continues to be to provide a high quality service to our customers in Ballater.”
