ROYAL Mail has refused to say how much post sent to people in Worcestershire has been delayed because of strikes.

The company said 25 million items had been delayed nationally but refused to release any local figures.

The post has been mounting up since the Communications Workers Union called strikes following disputes with bosses about the modernisation of the service and working conditions.

Workers from mail centres and delivery offices set up picket lines for two separate strikes last week and the week before.

Another all-out strike is planned for Friday unless negotiators, set to meet tomorrow afternoon, can agree a deal.

Lee Duffy, a postman for Warndon Villages, said managers were sorting some post during the strikes, but that meant delivery workers returning to work were faced with boxes filled with two days worth of mail to deliver.

Mr Duffy, aged 34, of Church Road, off Rainbow Hill, said: “When you go back after a strike day it’s absolutely awful.

“There’s mail everywhere.”

Steve Fulcher, a postal worker based at the Worcester mail centre and delivery office in Wainwright Road, Warndon, estimated there was about 10 per cent extra post at the depot but said workers were coping.

Mr Fulcher, aged 41, of Barley Crescent, Warndon Villages, added: “It’s not too bad. There’s post getting through the system.”

However, Brendon Allen, the union’s Hereford and Worcester branch secretary, queried how much backlogged post was being held in national distribution centres elsewhere in the UK.

He said: “We are not seeing horrendous backlogs like we did two years ago but the post may be in holding centres.”

A Royal Mail spokeswoman said: “We continue to do all we reasonably and legally can to clear mail delayed by the CWU’s strikes and get the post to our customers as soon as possible.”