COST-cutting moves by Royal Mail have left some Yorkshire Dales communities without daily postal deliveries.

The Wensleydale village of Carperby has failed to receive post on one occasion and sorting office staff at Hawes had to drive to Leyburn to collect letters and parcels.

Community leaders feel the problem could thwart efforts to persuade businesses to relocate to the area.

Royal Mail blamed "teething troubles" with its new system following the merging of first and second deliveries in the Leyburn area two weeks ago. The move is part of a national cost-cutting drive aimed at saving the organisation £2.1bn, which has already encountered problems in other areas, including Darlington and County Durham.

Kate Empsall, of Upper Wensleydale Business Association, who runs a bed and breakfast establishment at Askrigg, said: "My delivery used to be about 9am or 9.30, now it is after 10.30. We never had a second delivery in the rural area, so to have our only delivery so late is very bad. Businesses are already suffering and people will not set up businesses in rural areas if the post is not reliable."

Some post did not arrive until 2.30, causing serious problems for businesses which kept normal office hours.

Mrs Empsall, like many others running small businesses, was unable to afford to pay to receive guaranteed delivery by 7.30am each day, which she said could cost her £400.

Carperby had received no delivery on Wednesday of last week because staff shortages meant no cover on the regular postman's day off. A similar situation was averted at Askrigg this Wednesday when cover was organised.

"Hawes has a separate sorting office and normally receives mail from Leyburn by minibus but it didn't come on Tuesday, so they had to drive to Leyburn to collect it," said Mrs Empsall.

People also feared post would not be collected when there were no deliveries.

A spokesman for Royal Mail said the single delivery system was introduced at Leyburn two weeks ago.

"It has, as elsewhere in the country, had teething problems, as it is a massive change to the way people work," he said. "People are in the office longer having to get used to the new delivery rounds.

"The knock-on effect is causing genuine problems that we are doing all we can to address.

"Once these teething problems have been overcome, everything should run smoothly. I would expect that to be in weeks rather than months."

However, many addresses would not receive post as early as previously, said the spokesman, who added that the old first and second class service had never been a guaranteed one.

"Specifically, the situation at Carperby has been that staffing problems meant there were no deliveries and we apologise for that," he said.

"We would ask for people's patience."

Businesses could collect their own mail from Leyburn from 8.30am onwards.