STAFF at a Royal Mail delivery office in Preston went on strike on Wednesday (November 24), leaving thousands of households without mail.

More than 150 staff were expected to have stayed away from work at the Christian Road office, Preston, over a pay dispute dating back to April.

The posties claimed they had no choice but to take industrial action because of the way they have been treated in the wake of Royal Mail reforms.

Members of the Communications Workers Union (CWU) claim they are owed more than £800 they were promised in £26.28 a week extra in wages for making the change from two daily deliveries to one, in April.

Bill McGrath, who has been a postman for nine years, said: "We did not want to go on strike, but we felt that we did not have any option.

"This is not just about the money, it's about the way we have been treated since April.

"We had no choice in taking this action, but we are working for a very very poor profit minded company that's not bothered about service."

A spokesman for Royal Mail said: "We were disappointed that staff chose to take strike action.

"Priority service items were delivered and we did our best to deliver mail to businesses, but there were no ordinary mail deliveries .

"We can only apologise to customers for the inconvenience but we got back on track as quickly as possible after the strike.

"Collections are not affected and are taking place as normal."