Posties laid low by sickness have hit hundreds of households and businesses.

The Royal Mail today apologised to people in the OX1 and OX2 postcode areas of Oxford who have suffered severe disruption to their post because of high levels of staff sickness.

Thousands of letters and parcels have been delivered hours or even days late as beleaguered staff at the Oxpens delivery centre try to cope.

But the cause was only revealed yesterday when the Royal Mail finally admitted it was struggling. A spokesman said ten people were off sick out of its usual work force of 128 for the districts, covering the city centre, north, south and west Oxford and Kennington. Amazingly, the situation is actually better this week two weeks ago, 16 staff were off with flu and colds.

Spokesman Mike Dalton said the crisis had been compounded by the traditionally busy autumn period, with a significant rise in company mailshots and business post.

The surge has piled an extra 30,000 letters and parcels on top of the average 115,000 items normally delivered daily in Oxford. Mr Dalton said: "The problems we have been experiencing for the last couple of weeks are still ongoing, although the situation is gradually improving.

"We are drafting in agency staff to help, but their lack of local knowledge, and the problem of rural rounds because they are not allowed to drive our vehicles means they can only do foot deliveries.

"We're obviously aware the service is not as it should be and we apologise to the public for the inconvenience. "We're looking towards a gradual improvement and we hope to be back to normal by next week, but that is a hope, not a promise."

Pete Boswell, Oxfordshire branch secretary of the Communications Workers' Union, said the current situation was also due to the introduction of a shorter working week and delivery changes in the two Oxford districts.

He added: "They are being introduced office by office as part of a national agreement and have caused problems throughout the country as staff try to cope with the new arrangements.

"I'm pretty sure we'll get back to normal within the next couple of weeks."