Royal Mail pledges to deliver backlog 'within a week'

STUCK: Yesterday's story

The Evening News told yesterday how union leaders reported that 2.5 million pieces of new mail were stuck at the Sighthill sorting office because posties were still delivering 300,000 parcels and letters backlogged since early December.

A Royal Mail spokeswoman said staff were working round the clock to deliver both Christmas and up-to-date post. She said the system in the main Sighthill sorting centre was "fluid", and that bosses would continue to hire a temporary parcel sorting centre in Bathgate until the end of January.

Royal Mail also denied the Christmas backlog was so big, but would not confirm how much mail had been delayed.

The spokeswoman said: "The volume of mail we have in our system changes constantly and changes every hour. It is a fluid situation and we are doing extra deliveries and delivering mail to some customers on Sunday. We expect to be back on track next week.

"There is no truth (in reports] that 2.5 million items of mail are sitting in Edinburgh Mail Centre."

She added that a number of temporary seasonal workers, who would usually finish up their shifts on Christmas Eve, will be working next week to help process the mail.

Evening News readers continued to vent their frustrations as they waited on Christmas presents, cards and letters dating back as early as the start of December.

Some said they had received more than two dozen pieces of post in the past two days, indicating that the mountain of mail is starting to break down. But many reported that they were aware of presents and Christmas cards they had been sent that were not yet delivered.

Brian Healy, 39, from Livingston, said: "In the weeks that the region has been blighted by snow and ice, I've had about eight deliveries of mail, three of which came on the same day. I'm still receiving Christmas cards and letters postmarked almost one month ago."

Suzanne Shinnie, an IT worker based on Hill Street, said her mother's Christmas presents arrived only yesterday. She added: "I'm still waiting for my boyfriend's main Christmas present to arrive. I think we'll be celebrating Christmas in June."

A Leith-based resident who asked not to be named said she was waiting for an order that should have arrived in early December. She said: "Before Christmas, I understood the delay. But it's so frustrating that it's still not here a month after it was posted."

Several Edinburgh residents also reported that mail they had sent to others living in the Capital had taken up to a fortnight to deliver.

The Royal Mail spokeswoman explained the processing system was the same for mail sent from Edinburgh as it is for mail sent from London. All post is processed through the sorting office in Sighthill before it is sent to the relevant delivery office, where it is delivered by postal workers.

She said: "We apologise to our customers for any disruption caused by the extreme weather. We have been carrying out extra deliveries for some time now and we will be continuing to do so. We'd encourage anybody who wants their case to be investigated to get in touch."

Communication Workers Union Edinburgh branch representative, Gary Clark, explained that the mountain of mail was caused by the severe weather disruption and a shortage of workers over the festive period.

During the most severe weather, a number of rounds could only be half-completed, or not completed at all, and several posties could not carry as large a weight as normal.