Changes made by Royal Mail to Kings Langley’s postal service, have caused chaos, claim local residents.

Royal Mail was due to relocate its Kings Langley sorting office, based in Kings Langley High Street, to Caxton Way in Watford, by October 17.

This move has been delayed for a few weeks, but in the meantime, Royal Mail has implemented changes to its methods of delivering mail.

According to the postal service, the reason behind the move and changes is to modernise its operations, to “continue to offer a high quality service to customers”, and to “improve working conditions for delivery postmen and women”.

But residents in the WD4 and WD5 areas (Abbots Langley and Kings Langley), who will be directly impacted by the move, have claimed that since the changes were introduced, they have gone weeks without receiving their mail.

Peter Scott, chairman of Hillside Residents Association in South Way, Abbots Langley, said: “It’s been pretty ridiculous.

“For weeks we had no post at all and then weeks later, we would receive a huge amount of old post.

“A few neighbours and Hillside residents have said exactly the same thing, so it’s not a case of the odd person here or there being affected.

“They are supposed to be providing us with a service, but there has been nothing but disruption.”

Chairman of Three Rivers District Council, Councillor Chris Whately-Smith, has echoed the opinions expressed by Mr Scott.

The Liberal Democrat representative said: “The whole situation is nothing short of ridiculous.

“I live in Hunton Bridge so have been directly affected by these changes.

“People simply have not been receiving their post, or if they do, it’s arriving late.

“I’m concerned not just for residents, but what impact this could have on local businesses.

“If a business is awaiting a cheque in the post and its arrival is delayed – then this simply is not on, they might be relying on that payment.

“I have seen postmen wandering the streets lost, trying to find where they should be delivering post to.

“It’s nothing short of a farce.”

In response to these claims, Royal Mail has apologised to customers for the disruption.

Spokesperson Sally Hopkins said: "The disruption customers may have experienced to their mail services has been caused by the changes we made to our delivery practices from the beginning of October, which have taken a little while to bed in.

“We need to organise our delivery routes to be as efficient as possible and we must also invest in new equipment to carry the increasing number of larger items we are delivering.

“It is essential that we change in order to secure the future of the business and the highly valued one-price-goes-anywhere service.

"We wish to reassure customers that we have been working hard to resolve these issues by bringing in additional resources.

“All mail for delivery is going out every day and all deliveries are being completed that same day.

We apologise to our customers in Kings Langley for the disruption they may have experienced to their mail services.”

For further information call Royal Mail customer service department on: 0845 601 1399 or visit: www.royalmail.com.