Residents in the Watton area have criticised the post office for failing to clear a backlog of parcels which had not been delivered for more than a week.

Residents in the Watton area have criticised the post office for failing to clear a backlog of parcels which had not been delivered for more than a week.

Last month the Times revealed hundreds of people in town and surrounding villages had been left without postal coverage for up to two weeks.

But despite a pledge by managers to ensure a normal service, deliveries continued to be erratic last week, affecting Ashill, Carbrooke and a large part of Watton.

“The post office had not delivered parcels last week at all,” said Steve Bilverstone who lives in Carbrooke.

“We were told parcels were being held at the Watton high street branch and not being sorted and delivered. We had tried on various occasions last week to phone and were told last Tuesday that items were to be sorted and delivered that afternoon. But on Friday morning, still no show. Then later in the afternoon the post office van turned up with a sack of 16 parcels. We tried phoning again and it's impossible to get through. We complained to post office customer services and they could not get anyone to answer the phone to them as well or even respond to emails.”

Mr Bilverstone said on the previous occasion he had contacted the post office's manager in Thetford and asked him to sort out the delivery problem as soon as possible.

“I phoned him up and gave him a good earful. He then came to us and delivered two sackfuls of letters. He explained they had staff shortages, but promised that everything would go back to normal,” he said.

“But the problem persists. We've had this sort of problem for a very long time,” Mr Bilverstone added.

The Times was unable to contact anyone at the Watton sorting office for comment.

However, the central press office for the Royal Mail said they were not aware of any problems.

Sunita Chohan speaking for the Royal Mail said: “There are no problems with deliveries. All mail is being delivered daily as normal. However any customers with concerns, should contact our customer service number on 08457 740 740.”