Royal Mail delivers on Sunday to clear backlog

Hundreds of Royal Mail postal workers took to the streets yesterday (Sunday) in a bid to clear the backlog of mail caused by December’s severe weather. In preparation for the Christmas period, when the operator said it processed almost 2bn items, it employed an extra 23,000 additional staff.

However, heavy snowfall and icy conditions left the delivery of millions of letters delayed in the run-up to Christmas.

Although Royal Mail added extra rounds pre-Christmas to help with the backlog, a huge number of letters and Christmas cards are yet to be delivered.

Speaking to Post&Parcel, a spokesperson for Royal Mail said: “We have had some reports of individual items of Christmas mail arriving after Christmas. We apologise to any customer if individual items of mail posted by our recommended posting dates did not arrive in time for Christmas.

“In the small number of places where there has been some disruption, we have taken a range of additional measures. They included Sunday deliveries last weekend in parts of Eastern Scotland, where 200 extra managers and postmen were deployed.

“Similar measures were taken this Sunday. Approximately 500 postmen and managers worked in a small number of areas where there is some disruption. We stress that this additional effort is aimed at resolving some outstanding issues around delivery changes in a number of offices.”