RESIDENTS in Teignmouth are fed up of lengthy delays in the postal service.

Some people are reporting not receiving any post for more than a week and some first class urgent letters are taking up to 10 days to arrive.

Others are saying they have not had a week then finding all their post is turning up on one day.

One resident complains: ‘I get post about once every two weeks at the moment.’

Another said: ‘How come I can have no post for a week then it all turns up, where has it been for the week?’

And one said seven birthday cards were delivered a week after her birthday even though they had all been posted well in plenty of time.

There have been further reports of post being up to three weeks late.

Teignmouth county councillor David Cox, who lives in Shaldon, said he had experience where a medical appointment letter arrived after he had attended the appointment.

He said: ‘It is terrible and a disappointing service from the Royal Mail which is meant to be the gold standard.’

Another resident said: ‘I get post about once every two weeks at the moment.’

The TQ14 postcode area, which includes Teignmouth, is among a list of national postcodes reported to be experiencing disruption.

It has been reported that while Royal Mail aims to deliver to addresses six days a week, in some areas, including Teignmouth, there have been issues such as high levels of sick absence.

It has also been reported that in such circumstances deliveries are rotated to minimise delays to individual customers.

In a statement, Royal Mail said: ‘We take reports of delayed mail very seriously and know how important it is that customers receive their post on time.

‘Our posties are delivering every day in Teignmouth and we continue to work hard to improve performance.

‘Our latest figures show 87.4per cent of First Class mail in the TQ postcode area was delivered on time, while nationally more than 93per cent of all letters were delivered on time and over 99per cent within a week.

‘From time to time, short-term local issues can affect individual routes. Where that happens, any mail not delivered that day is prioritised for the next working day.’

The Royal Mail said is was unable to give figures for the specific TQ14 postcode so the figures supplied relate to the whole area which includes Torbay and parts of the South Hams.

Royal Mail has denied claims there is a ban on overtime for postal workers but said that during the summer months there was a reduction in overtime booked, especially when compared to our peak Christmas period, due to less mail typically being sent in the summer.