A POLITICIAN bidding to become Darwen's MP has hit out at postal services in the town.

Conservative prospective parliamentary candidate Nigel Adams says new figures show that in the three months to June 2004:

Only 86.4 per cent of first class letters in the BB postcode area to addresses outside the area were delivered the next day.

In the BL postcode area only 90.8 per cent of first class letters to addresses outside the area arrived on time and 9.3 per cent of local letters sent first class failed to arrive.

Nationally, the Royal Mail failed all 15 of its performance targets.

Mr Adams said: "These figures confirm local residents' and firms' suspicions that a lot of first class mail is not arriving the next day.

"Yet the Post Office is 100 per cent owned by the Government, and Whitehall sets the performance targets, hence, the Government cannot escape its ultimate responsibility for the state of the Royal Mail network.

"In addition, many of our local post offices here in Darwen have either closed or are under threat of closure.