The whistleblower, who is based at Royal Mail’s Colchester delivery office, spoke to the Gazette after frustrated residents complained about delays to postal services in some parts of the city.

While people in some areas are reporting letters are being delivered as usual, residents in areas like Mile End, Highwoods, and the city centre claim they don’t receive letters for days, or even weeks, at a time, despite the Colchester office not being present on a list of the locations worst affected by problems like staff sickness.

Royal Mail told the Gazette it will always try to prioritise missed deliveries the following day, but the anonymous insider says resourcing problems are adding to the delays.

Site - Colchester's Royal Mail delivery office (Image: Steve Brading)

“Before Covid, the office would be clear every day and if one letter was left that would be a problem. When you had a day off or holiday you’d come back and wouldn’t expect to come back to a backlog,” they said.

According to the postie, agency staff are being used but cover for holidays, sickness, or days off appears to be “random”.

READ MORE:

• Postal delays in Colchester could 'take weeks' to resolve, reveals Royal Mail worker
• Colchester posties 'sick with stress' told to prioritise parcels, says whistleblower

They added: “There’s no way for a customer to know if their first class letter will arrive the next day or if it will take a week. It depends if your usual postie is there or not."

They explained missed rounds may be delivered one or two days later, but further missed rounds will then sit in their place, creating a vicious circle.

The frustrated worker added: “I can’t remember the last time the office was cleared.

"Every day I see loads of post rounds that haven’t gone out and that’s normal now."

Royal Mail said the postal service is committed to continuously improving and restoring its service in line with customer expectations and refuted claims parcels and tracked items are prioritised.

"At particularly busy times we may occasionally at a local level clear parcels to free up space and address health and safety concerns so that we can keep all mail - including letters - moving efficiently through our network," a spokesman added.