ROYAL MAIL bosses were last night under increasing pressure to end a growing crisis that has blighted mail deliveries.

Postmen and women were seen on the streets of Darlington yesterday, desperately trying to help clear a backlog of mail that should have been delivered on Saturday.

It was the latest development in a saga which has seen businesses and residents in the town become increasingly frustrated at delays caused by the decision to combine first and second class posts.

The system was put in place in a bid to make postal deliveries more efficient.

But it appears to have back-fired so far, with angry customers receiving their mail several hours late.

Representatives of the Communication Workers' Union are due to meet management today in an effort to resolve the problem.

Darlington branch secretary Phil Graham said some postmen and women were leaving at 9am and not returning until 6pm.

"It has been badly planned and our members, who do this job day in and day out, have had great difficulty pointing out potential problems to management," he said.

Large numbers of workers from the Darlington office have been going off sick with stress since the system came into effect, causing a huge workload for colleagues.

Mr Graham added: "We want to make single daily delivery work. We want this service to be as good as it has always been, but at the moment the people we serve are very concerned about mail arriving late."

Alasdair MacConachie, chairman of Darlington Partnership, said the impact on the business community had been serious.

"It is scandalous really," he said. "We have got to be able to deal with the mail early."

A Royal Mail spokeswoman apologised to customers for the delays and admitted there were "teething problems" with the new system.

She said there had been "an unusually high level of sickness absence" in Darlington.