FIRST Class mail sent from IP postcodes has a better chance of reaching its destination the next working day than mail sent from anywhere else in the East of England.

FIRST Class mail sent from IP postcodes has a better chance of reaching its destination the next working day than mail sent from anywhere else in the East of England.

Royal Mail's performance figures for its handling of first class mail exceeded its target of 91.5per cent for the nine months until December, with post from IP postcodes arriving the next working day 95.5pc of the time - the highest percentage in the region.

The Ipswich area not only topped the table for the east but ranked 11th highest in the country for first class mail arriving on time.

Royal Mail today welcomed the figures, which were compiled by an independent research company.

James Farren, Royal Mail's territory director, said: “The results show that despite the huge challenges set in a competitive market, our people are still achieving record results for customers.

“This is a credit to their hard work and commitment and is excellent news for all our customers.”

Postwatch, the watchdog for postal services, welcomed the quality of service results, which it said showed that the company was on course to meet 11 of its 12 annual performance targets.

In the East of England, Royal Mail achieved the minimum target of delivering 91.5 percent in all nine of the region's postcode areas.

Dr Charles Winstanley, chairman of Postwatch East, said: “Postwatch welcomes these results, and Royal Mail's efforts to improve postal performance.

“We hope that this continues in the final quarter of this year.”

In the table of top performing postcode areas nationally, the best performing areas were Huddersfield and Kingston upon Thames.

Are you happy with the service delivered by Royal Mail? Write to Your Letters, Evening Star, 30 Lower Brook Street, Ipswich, IP4 1AN, or e-mail eveningstarletters@eveningstar.co.uk.