Thought I’d give some hope to anyone travelling soon.
This morning I drove to Peterborough without an appointment. I got there at 6:15am and was 7 from the front but found out your position in the queue is not relevant.
Staff were brilliant and sorted people into groups 1. Anyone travelling in next 24 hours straight to the front, anyone travelling in next 48 hours behind them next, then anyone waiting over 10 weeks to fill in a form to get a call back from someone inside…. I was on the call back list, which this time did materialise.
As far as I know everyone that needed one to fly within 48 hours got theirs, they managed to dig out and look at my application and print the passport by 1.15pm (I did have to pay the upgrade fee).
The staff at the office all clearly care about people and know what they are doing (unlike all of the call centre staff on the “help” line.)
Good luck to anyone in the loop and might be good to know if all else fails and you fit into one of the three groups above then there is a way.