DESPITE Royal Mail's claims the postal service has improved residents say there are still problems.

Most of the post sent out in an experiment by The Daily Echo two months ago arrived the next day.

The Royal Mail gave figures showing 94.9 per cent of the post now sent to "BH" addresses arrived on time - the target being 91.4 per cent.

But George Perrins, a solicitor from Flaghead Road in Canford Cliffs, said: "In Canford Cliffs, I suspect carrier pigeons would prove more reliable - and probably quicker.

"We rarely get post until the afternoons and we have on several occasions had it as late as 5pm."

He claimed he received wrongly delivered post every week and was angry that the Royal Mail had not responded to two of his telephone complaints over the past six months.

About a month ago he complained to the Westbourne delivery office in person and was sent a letter of apology.

But he was dismayed when that week he got another three wrongly delivered items.

He exclaimed: "I recently had occasion to deal with a mail redirection from another family property. I was somewhat dismayed to have a couple of letters from advertisers welcoming me to my new home."

Former postal officer Brian Wareham, 75, from Kinson Road in Bournemouth, who worked for the Post Office for 45 years, had mail wrongly delivered to his house.

He said: "Problems do happen. It's because the post office is no longer run by people rising up through the ranks. People come into the post office and in five or six months they are managers."

He added: "The job is also more demanding now. You have one person doing a job three people used to do."

Sue Dakin, spokeswoman for Royal Mail, said: "We have a new postman in the Canford Cliffs area and he is currently working hard to get to grips with the walks.

"We apologise for any delays currently being experienced, but we would reassure customers we are providing the postman with support and training in his new role."

First published: November 11, 2005