ROYAL MAIL failed to meet its delivery targets for more than 75% of homes and businesses in Scotland last year, making the country’s postal service the worst in the UK.

The company — which has just announced record profits of £537m and given Adam Crozier, its Scottish chief executive, a bonus of £2.2m — managed to meet first-class delivery targets in only three out of 13 postcode areas.

The worst served area was Glasgow, where only 88.8% of letters and packages reached their destination on time. Edinburgh, Inverness and Falkirk fared slightly better at just under 91%.

Across Scotland, 90.5% of first-class letters were delivered the next working day, compared with a minimum target of 92.5% and national averages in England, Wales and Northern Ireland of 91.5%, 91.9% and 90.7% respectively.

The disappointing performance has provoked anger in the wake of a £218m payout to staff — including a £1,000 annual bonus for postmen and large bonuses for directors. Crozier has earned £3.3m since he joined the company in February 2003.

Tom Begg, chairman of Postwatch Scotland, said he welcomed signs of improvement but Royal Mail needed to redouble its efforts to ensure that all customers got a fair deal.

“There remain many areas throughout Scotland where the first-class service is unacceptably poor and needs to improve,” he said.

“Many customers in Scotland are not getting the service they pay for. What’s more, they are paying more than ever — stamp price increases over the past couple of years have resulted in over £400m extra revenue.”

Although deliveries have improved slightly in Perth, Dundee and Edinburgh over the past year, Begg said performance had deteriorated in other areas including Glasgow, Falkirk, Inverness, Kilmarnock and the Borders. The only areas where targets were met were in Aberdeen, Dumfries and Motherwell and the Borders.

Throughout the UK, Royal Mail failed to achieve the 92.5% target in 86 of the 118 postcode areas.

Ian Davidson, Labour MP for Glasgow South West, said: “We need to be asking Royal Mail why it expects people in Glasgow to put up with the worst service in the country. Perhaps they don’t complain enough. I also suspect that most Royal Mail officials do not live in the city.”

Danny Alexander, the Liberal Democrat MP for Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey, added: “In the week that Royal Mail announced record profits, these figures show the need for continued investment in the postal service, especially in rural areas.

“I hope that Royal Mail will invest some of its new resources into improving the postal service for both Scotland and the Highlands and Islands.”

Royal Mail said this weekend that the figures did not take account of geographical differences across Britain. Deliveries in some places were affected by winter weather and remoteness.

“Royal Mail’s quality of service is the best for a decade and this is a slight on our people who have worked so hard to improve the service we give,” said a spokesman. “Quality of service for 2004-05 has improved quarter on quarter.”

He added that the market would be fully open to competition next year and the company was working hard to improve service quality.

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