Burnham-On-Sea’s Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate Tessa Munt saw at first hand the hard work that postmen and women do throughout the festive period during a visit to the town’s sorting office last week.
She joined local postie Val Stone at 6am on Christmas Eve to sort through the mail at Burnham Sorting Office before accompanying Val on her final delivery round before Christmas.
Tessa and the postmen and women were held up at Burnham sorting office by the icy weather until the Post Office Manager gave clearance for deliveries to begin.
Several staff in the area had hurt themselves on icy pavements the previous day.
Tessa told Burnham-On-Sea.com: “It is eye-opening how many items of post are sent and delivered locally. Postmen and women work extremely hard and I really appreciate their efforts, particularly at this time of year.”
“With the poor weather we had leading up to Christmas there was a bit of a backlog, so posties in rural areas worked extra hard to get everything delivered in time for the big day.”
The average number of items put in the post across the UK every day is 75 million but, as the trend towards online shopping increases, Royal Mail estimates that on some days leading up to Christmas, it handles 140 million items a day.
Pictured here are Tessa Munt and postie Val Stone sorting the Christmas Eve mail at Burnham Sorting Office, and (top) out on the village post round
