Wildcat strikers again disrupted the mail in Brentwood this week following a similar dispute which hit deliveries last month.

Post boxes throughout the area were cleared and sealed as a security measure on Monday and there were no residential deliveries. After emergency talks members of the Communication Workers' Union returned to work at 7am on Tuesday.

Now Brentwood Tory MP Eric Pickles is seeking urgent talks with Royal Mail sector operations manager Dave Harding to discuss the disruption.

"A number of firms and individuals have contacted me about the long term problem with deliveries in the district. I appeal to anyone who can give me examples to contact me and I will take it up", he said.

The dispute centres on working arrangements for postmen and women at the St Thomas Road sorting office. A growth in deliveries on some routes has produced inequalities which the two sides are trying to rectify.

The volume of post, much of it mail shots, to addresses in the affluent CM13, CM14 and CM15 postcode areas has also added to the problem.

A Royal Mail spokesman said: "We'll be working to clear the backlog as quickly as possible and regret and apologise for the inconvenience.

"We will continue talking with the union to try to ensure there will be no recurrence if this unofficial action."

A union spokesman also apologised to customers but declined to comment further.

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