A FINANCIAL adviser has criticised the city's postal service for not delivering business post in the run-up to Christmas.

Angry Penny Francis, who works from her home in Warndon Villages, Worcester, has said her customers rely heavily on her service of giving investment advice and also arranging mortgages.

The mother-of-three said her business was run almost solely on post and e-mail communication - but it is the original documents she is not getting or being delivered on time that is affecting her.

Mrs Francis, aged 34, said: "I have been getting a very minimal post over the past two week. From what I have heard from an insider Worcester sorting office has been instructed to retain all standard DL size envelopes in favour of hand-sorting non-standard size envelopes.

"This means that Worcester residents are not receiving any business mail, credit card statements, bank statements, insurance cover notes and stand to go broke if they work from home. Mail to Santa at the North Pole is unaffected."

Mrs Francis has worked from home for the past three years and has said she has never known it to be this bad. She has checked with colleagues from around the city who have also noted the dip in mail received.

She said when she has tried phoning to complain she has not been able to get through to talk to someone in person, and her e-mail to Royal Mail has not been responded to. "Over the last few years at Christmas it has never been this bad. It is outrageous" she said.

A spokesman from Royal Mail said that in the run-up to Christmas posting can take longer as the volumes almost double in size.

He added if there was specific items of mail people knew were not being delivered they would need to report it to customer services so they could investigate. City MP Mike Foster said he was so far unaware of any problems but if anyone was experiencing them to contact him.