A WATCHDOG group has hit out at the standard of first-class mail delivery in Salisbury district.

It follows the release of figures from Consignia showing that the delivery in the SP postcode area is among the worst 20 in the country.

The figures reveal that first-class mail in the SP district - which, as well as Salisbury, includes the Wilton, Whiteparish, Downton, Martin, Broad Chalke, Tisbury, Amesbury and Tidworth areas - reached only 86.5 per cent of targets in the most recent six-month monitoring period.

That means that more than 13 of every 100 first-class letters posted remain undelivered the next working day.

The consumer watchdog Postwatch says it is "far from happy" with the situation.

John Ruskin, who runs the Postwatch panel for Wiltshire, said: "We accept Consignia is never likely to achieve 100 per cent performance and we think that an agreed target of 91 per cent is reasonable.

"But for the SP postcode area now to be among the 20 worst delivery areas in the whole of the UK is simply not good enough.

"We know there are many loyal and committed staff who work on the mail service and doubtless they are no happier with the standard of performance than we are.

"But from Consignia's senior management down, there needs to be root and branch change to enable standards to be returned to an acceptable level."