Bank holiday post stacking up in Southend's sorting office should now have been successfully delivered to residents, Royal Mail bosses have said.

Sackfuls of post which have been sitting in the Short Street sorting office since Thursday - due to the extra-long bank holiday period - have been delivered to householders.

Much of it had been posted from the London area after the last collection time on Wednesday, according to the Royal Mail.

Spokesman James Eadie said there had been no real problems, despite the service being under massive pressure over the festive period.

His comments come less than three weeks after staff at Short Street launched a work-to-rule over a dispute about Christmas overtime.

Mr Eadie said: "There is going to be mail in sorting offices across the country at the moment but there is no backlog of mail.

"There was some mail that arrived in Southend after 2pm on Thursday which had come from the London and Peterborough areas and which had been posted overnight on Wednesday or Thursday morning. That was due to be delivered yesterday.

"We have not failed our customers and there is no problem."

The volume of mail left at the Short Street sorting office over the weekend was less than the average week day, according to Mr Eadie. He said: "The amount of mail there is as usual, if not slightly less, because businesses have been closed."

Christmas post deliveries in Southend were affected by delays for three days from December 13 after negotiations between 102 postmen, 43 office staff and management over overtime pay broke down.

A backlog of letters and parcels built up for homes and businesses in the SS0, SS1 and SS2 postcode areas.

A new offer was quickly made by management and staff agreed a new overtime package on December 15.

The sorting office normally handles between 150,000 and 200,000 letters a day, but in the festive period that figure can double.

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