More than 1,000 homes went without mail after staff shortages and sickness took their toll on postal deliveries, it has been revealed.

Royal Mail has issued an apology to the homeowners who did not get a delivery of mail on Saturday.

The company provides a service to 250,000 addresses around Southend but five rounds had to be abandoned due to staff sickness and holidays.

The letdown came after Southend's council leader Charles Latham and chief executive George Krawiec met with Royal Mail chiefs over the future of postal services across the borough.

It was announced in May that operations for Southend would be moved from Boreham, near Chelmsford, to Romford, sparking fears of delayed mail.

The row has rumbled on since 1997 when the Royal Mail sorting office, in Short Street, Southend, was down-graded and operations moved to the £20million hi-tech sorting centre in Boreham.

A spokesman for Royal Mail said: "About 1,000 addresses were missed on Saturday out of the 250,000 we cover. We agree that is too many but you have to bear in mind the circumstances surrounding the failure.

"We can cope when postworkers take holidays by getting other staff to do overtime or with agency staff. If somebody is suddenly off sick we offer their shift out.

"If we do not get enough volunteers, who do the extra rounds after their own, we are left hamstrung. We make every effort to make sure deliveries are made every day." All services were back to normal yesterday.

By Kelly Clark

Reporter's e-mail: kellyc@notes.newsquest.co.uk

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