THE performance of the Royal Mail in Worcestershire has plummeted over the past year - despite company bosses announcing a £220m national profit.

Across the country, the service missed all 15 delivery targets and admitted it had not performed to the level customers expect.

In the last year, 4.1 per cent less first-class post from Worcestershire boasted next-day delivery across the UK - the level expected of the national service.

City lagging

With an industry standard 92.5 per cent success rate in this area, Worcester was lagging at just 89.7 per cent. Royal Mail guidelines warn that "no individual postcode area should fall below 90.5".

The picture was brighter for first-class mail when it was posted in Worcestershire to another address within the county - the so-called intra-service.

It fell by just 0.1 per cent to 95.7, and remained well above the required minimum performance of 92.5 per cent.

In Herefordshire, basic targets were hit in both categories, but performance still dropped by 1.6 per cent for national deliveries and 0.9 per cent for intra-mail.

Richard Ward, chairman of Herefordshire and Worcestershire's mail watchdog Postwatch, said customers were paying more and getting less.

"Royal Mail has concentrated on returning to profit at the expense of customer service," he said. "These profits must now be invested to improve results.

"This performance is part of a three-year decline in service and cannot be waved away.

"Parts of the Midlands have received a woeful service for some time now. Customers want regular, reliable and secure deliveries."

Richard Hall, a spokesman for Royal Mail, said problems had been caused by a combination of factors but the service had pledged to improve.

"In the first six months of the year we posted our best performance for 15 years but, from last Autumn, we suffered some bouts of unofficial industrial action which affected figures," he said.

"Our entire focus is now on the quality of service," Mr Hall added.