‘Royal Mail delivered my Christmas cards… during a heatwave’

It comes after Royal Mail wrote to residents of a coastal town apologising for delivery delays blaming dive-bombing seagulls for the inconvenience.

Householders in Liskeard, Cornwall, received a letter from the Royal Mail warning them that the aggressive birds have been impacting postal deliveries in the area.

Mr Bishop, 72, added: “I know Christmas cards will be on sale soon, I just thought my friends were sending me their thoughts in case of my demise before Christmas 2024.”

He said his postman had since been to his house to inspect the envelopes and is reporting back to their manager. Royal Mail said it was investigating the matter.

A Royal Mail spokesman said: “We deliver billions of letters successfully every year. During the last festive period, 99 per cent of first and second-class items posted by the last recommended posting dates were delivered in time for Christmas.

“At times, while large numbers of letters move through our network, a very small fraction may be temporarily misplaced, such as hidden at the bottom of a mailbag. We will be looking into this isolated incident, and while it is uncertain what happened in this circumstance, we will always ensure any found letters continue their journey to the customer.”