Rishi Sunak has visited Royal Mail’s Richmond Delivery Office to see the Christmas post operation move into top gear.
Mr Sunak was shown around the office by Delivery Office Manager, Darren Kidman, and was introduced to the postmen and women who are working hard sorting and delivering mail in the Richmond, Swaledale, Catterick and North Richmondshire areas during the festive season.
They included Paul Whapples, of Catterick Garrison, who was about to set off on the round covering Reeth and Arkengarthdale.
At its Christmas peak the Richmond office will deal with 35,000 letters a day and more than 30,000 parcels a week.
Mr Sunak said: “There is a huge amount of effort and dedication that goes into delivering a first class Christmas at Royal Mail’s busiest time of year.
“It was great to meet the team in Richmond and watch the operation underway. I was very impressed with the speed and efficiency with which they worked.
“Our postal workers do such an important job at this time of year and I would like to thank them on behalf of my constituents for their efforts.”
Mr Kidman said: “Our postmen and women are working extremely hard to deliver Christmas cards, letters and parcels to people across the Richmond district.
“We’d like to remind our customers to post early so that friends and family have longer to enjoy their Christmas greetings. We would also like to ask everyone to please always use the postcode as this helps us greatly in the job that we do at this busy time.”
The last recommended posting dates for Christmas are: second class – Tuesday, December 20; first class – Wednesday, December 21; Special Delivery – Friday, December 23.