Residents in the Kingston postcode area suffered the second worst Royal Mail service in spring 2011, new figures revealed.

Nearly one in six first class letters were delivered late in the KT area, which includes Kingston, Surbiton, New Malden, Esher, Cobham, Epsom and Worcester Park.

The Royal Mail’s licence standard says 91.5 per cent of first class mail in each postcode area should be delivered by the next working day.

However, the figure for late March to early June 2011 was 83.9 per cent, according to the Quality of Service report released on Friday, August 26.

Only Guildford, where 81.3 per cent of first class mail was delivered on time, fared worse.

The Royal Mail blamed its modernisation programme, and an Icelandic ash cloud which disrupted flights that carry 11 per cent of first class mail within the UK.

Robert Hammond, director of postal policy and regulation at Consumer Focus, described the results as “disappointing”.

He said: “The company says its modernisation programme has affected performance. The programme has been running since April 2010 and we would expect any teething problems to be over by now.

“The price of stamps has increased significantly in recent years to fund modernisation and consumers deserve to see improvements in the service.”

The Twickenham and south west London postcode areas also failed to meet the target, but Sutton and Croydon exceeded it.

Mark Higson, Royal Mail’s managing director of modernisation and operations, said: “The operational changes we are making in Royal Mail are the biggest the company has undertaken in living memory.

“We constantly review the way we modernise to minimise any impact on customers.

“The scale of the changes sometimes leads to some teething problems which can have a temporary impact on quality of service.

“We apologise to any customers for any service which falls below our targets, which are among the highest standards in Europe. Customers can be assured we are doing everything possible to deliver the best possible service at all times.”

Nationally, more than half of postcode areas failed to meet the 91.5 per cent target for first class mail, while 98.4 per cent of second class mail was delivered on time, just 0.1 per cent short of its target.

Have you been hit by the Royal Mail’s poor performance? What do you think? Comment below.