Royal Mail bosses have admitted items have been delayed at their Garforth delivery office because of workload pressures.

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They say the backlog only involves "a small number of parcels" from earlier this week.

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But one business in the area served by the office tells a different story.

Caroline Sanders, who runs Oulton-based Hilton Sanders Photography, has been waiting for the arrival of a vital package of prints since November 6.

She says, that while chasing up her complaint, postal workers told her that Garforth had a backlog that mainly consisted of two or three weeks' mail.

Some items, though, were said to have been in the office's storage area since the start of October.

Miss Sanders says she was told the delay had affected parcels, rather than letters.

She said: "This is an outrageous state of affairs.

"We are a relatively new business, trying to build up a reputation for reliability.
"How are we expected to do that when we don't know when our post is going to arrive?"

A spokeswoman for Royal Mail, however, denied there were major problems at the Garforth office, which serves the LS25 and LS26 postcode areas.

She said: "Due to a large volume of items for delivery, there are a small number of parcels from earlier this week which are awaiting delivery. We apologise to customers for the delay."
The spokeswoman said it was hoped the situation would be sorted out by the start of today .

Asked about the reported disruption, the Communication Workers Union said it was aware of a "small backlog" at Garforth earlier this week.

Royal Mail paid out nearly £1m in compensation to disgruntled customers in the Yorkshire area last year – a 30 per cent increase compared to the previous 12 months.