MARKET traders have told of their anger at a blunder that left them without mail for more than a week.

Stallholders at Darlington's indoor market raised the alarm when hundreds of letters failed to reach them - remaining stuck in a Royal Mail delivery room instead.

John Lister, who has the Lister and White fruit and vegetable stall, said the mix-up cost his business a considerable amount of money.

"I supply a lot of restaurants and hotels. While I was getting no post, I was getting no cheques from them and no invoices from wholesalers," he said. "This has affected the whole market and people are very angry."

For months, the stallholders' post had been distributed by a council official after Royal Mail had it delivered in bulk.

But after one letter went astray, bundles were returned to the sorting office, where they sat undelivered for days.

A council spokesman said it was not the authority's responsibility to distribute letters to individual stallholders.

"We have spoken to Royal Mail and explained to them that it is their responsibility to deliver mail to those businesses. In the past, mail has been passed to the market team, but it should not have been and we explained that to Royal Mail," he said.

Royal Mail said it had now taken responsibility and resumed normal delivery to individual stallholders.