A FORMER postal worker has claimed the service in West Berkshire is in crisis.
The whistleblower's warnings come amid ongoing delays to deliveries in the district following the coronavirus outbreak.
But the former employee at a local delivery office says it has gone from having one of the best delivery records in the South East to the worst, while others are similarly understaffed.
The man, who asked for his identity to be withheld, said priority was given to scanned and tracked items while letters – sometimes including important information such as hospital appointments – would be ignored.
He said: "For example, at Christmas during the peak period we were getting an average of 2,500 items a day which had to be scanned in.
"Lorries would turn up later than usual which had a knock-on effect on your delivery but these scanned items took priority."
He added: "Since the start of Covid and to this day any postman or woman would tell you it has been a nightmare at [the] delivery office.
"It used to be one of the best, performance wise, in the South East but unfortunately now it's one of the worst.
"We were told that the priority was for all the tracked items to be delivered each day [ahead of] letters even if there were important hospital appointments."
The whistleblower praised the efforts of the delivery staff but said the system was under funded and staff were overworked.
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