Busiest day of year at Royal Mail centre

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Posties at a mail centre in West Yorkshire have been busy sorting more than five and a half million items during its busiest day of the year.

The Leeds mail centre in Stourton has more than 1,900 staff who are working around the clock to ensure Christmas cards and parcels arrive on time.

Royal Mail is taking on 21,000 extra seasonal workers in the UK – 700 of which are in Leeds – to help with the festive rush.

Extra Christmas parcel sorting centres have also been set up and extended collection times have been organised.

As well as the huge team of workers at Stourton, 4,200 Leeds delivery postmen and women will also be busy working during the festive period.

Alison Wright, director of processing, has worked with Royal Mail for 27 years. She said: “Christmas is certainly a busy time of year for us. When you’re posting your letters in a red box in Leeds, it will be collected and brought here before going through a letter sorting machine.

“It gets through 35,000 items per hour and sorts out first and second class post by reading the phosphor in the stamps.”

The last recommended posting date for second class mail is today or for first class, it’s December 20.