By James Rougvie

THE FIRST trickle of what is promising to become a Christmas card avalanche in Dundee and Angus—almost 12 million are expected to be posted between now and the last first class posting on December 21—begins in earnest today with 550 staff tackling the contents of 464 postboxes.

A Royal Mail spokesman pledged that staff at Dundee East, where sporadic labour problems have bedevilled the system over the years, would be pulling out all the stops to ensure that the public get their mail effectively.

He said that difficulties of implementing the single daily delivery from the Dundee East office had been overcome and that the Christmas operation had been long in the planning.

He added, “We know there have been difficulties but they are prepared and ready and we are confident the staff there will do as much as they possibly can to make the Christmas mail delivery a success.

“There has been a lot of monitoring being done to ensure the operation goes smoothly and it is crucial we continue to monitor. Everything at Dundee East has settled down now with single delivery which, in fact, has become a pre- requisite for the Christmas delivery.”

In addition to the staff Royal Mail are putting an extra 10 vehicles on the 157–strong transport fleet, backed up by 77 bikes.

In Perthshire and parts of the adjacent Highland region 7.5 million letters are expected and in Fife Royal Mail expects to deliver 14.6 million cards and letters.

Throughout Scotland Royal Mail reckon that staff will handle 250 million items of mail during the festive period, with today 16 million items, double the daily average, being posted.

In Scotland an extra 2000 staff have been taken on to cope with the additional volume of mail.

“Every year we urge our customers to post early.

“Our postmen and women are geared up and eager to get on with the task of delivering the nation’s Christmas cards,” said the spokesman.

“Posting early means that friends and family have longer to enjoy cards.”

The last posting date for most international mail is today.