ROYAL Mail has apologised to residents in Basingstoke who have experienced delays to receiving post.

A spokesperson for Royal Mail said the postal service in the town has been impacted by “high levels of sickness absence” which is causing “some disruption”.

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They added: “We are sorry to anyone who has experienced delays in the area. Improving our quality of service is our top priority, and we are committed to restoring service levels to where our customers expect them to be.

“The local service has very recently been impacted by higher levels of sickness absence. This has caused some disruption.”

However, it said that all mail for the Cranbourne area of Basingstoke, which was impacted earlier in the week, has since been issued and now “post is being delivered on a daily basis”.

The spokesperson added: “Across our business we have similar plans in place to drive service levels and reduce absence at our delivery office. We hope and expect to see further progress in the coming months.”