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The Covid-19 pandemic is causing disruption to postal deliveries in Richmondshire.
Officials say the Royal Mail sorting office in Leyburn is working with fewer than half their normal staff due to the pandemic.
The issues are causing delivery delays in Wensleydale and surrounding Dales.
A spokesperson for Hawes Post office: “We’ve been made aware of some issues with post delivery in the Hawes area over the past few days.
“Unfortunately, we’ve been told Leyburn Sorting Office is experiencing Covid-related staffing issues and are working on seven staff instead of the usual 20 staff.
“It is not only difficult times with coronavirus, but the Christmas post is already picking up so this will be adding more pressure to their team.
“They are working as hard as they can to deliver post to you and we are sure everyone can appreciate the circumstances.”
A local resident said a friend had posted him a birthday card last Tuesday and it had not arrived by Tuesday this week.
He added: “Given where we live we get to know the postmen quite well and while out we bumped into one of these chaps, who explained that over 50 oer cent of the Leyburn sorting office are off self isolating with Covid-19 so they are not deliver most of the mail in the area served by Leyburn.”
Royal Mail said the pandemic was causing disruptions nationally.
A spokesperson said: “We are working hard to deliver the most comprehensive service we can to all our customers in challenging circumstances.
“Despite our best endeavours, it is possible that some areas of the country may on occasion experience a temporary reduction in service levels due to coronavirus-related absences and necessary social distancing measures at their local mail centre or delivery office. In such cases, we always work hard to get back to providing a normal service as quickly as we can.
“We always endeavour to keep our customers as informed as we can of any changes to our services. We have a dedicated section on our website https://www.royalmail.com/coronavirus.”
