Dundee councillors are seeking to grill a Royal Mail chief about continuing complaints from the public about poor mail service in the city.
They unanimously backed a call from Conservative councillor Derek Scott to seek a meeting with Royal Mail’s operations director for Scotland.
The council’s chief executive has been told to write to the individual, “expressing concern that there are still significant problems with mail deliveries”.
Mr Scott said he was still receiving complaints from constituents in Broughty Ferry.
He accepted there had been changes in working practices at the Dundee East delivery office and the Christmas mail surge had coincided with bad weather.
“But that doesn’t explain the ongoing difficulties I am hearing about,” he said, adding that in the last month he had received complaints about important mail such as credit card bills and utility bills failing to arrive.
One person had their phone cut off because no bill arrived, another received a summary warrant over unpaid council tax.
He knew of a first-class letter posted a week ago in the Ferry to another address in the area which had still not arrived.
“I have come across postmen who have no familiarity with Dundee at all. I was asked for directions two weeks ago by a postman.
“Royal Mail have been bussing people from Edinburgh to deliver mail in Dundee East,” Mr Scott said.
SNP administration leader Ken Guild agreed, saying he had also seen postal workers from the central belt “wandering around Broughty Ferry looking thoroughly lost.”
He told councillors, “I suggest we send an email and, if we do not get a straight response, I would be quite happy to call for a public inquiry.
“There have been problems at the Dundee East delivery office for a number of years.”
Liberal Democrat Fraser Macpherson said there had been problems in his West End ward.
“I have had a steady stream of complaints about inconsistent deliveries, especially in the Perth Road area. There is clear dissatisfaction with Royal Mail.”
Bob Duncan, SNP member for Lochee, said mail deliveries in the western part of the city were “at best erratic” and he knew of businesses that were using taxis to deliver urgent letters.
Mr Guild said he understood that Royal Mail was planning to extend its Way Forward working practices, introduced at Dundee East in the autumn, to the west.