THE region is receiving some of the best quality postal service from Royal Mail in the UK, new research has found.

The Peterborough (PE) postcode, which covers Wisbech, March, and Chatteris among others, can boast a First Class postal target 0.2 per cent ahead of the national target at 93.2 per cent - 1.7 per cent ahead of the minimum standard - for mail arriving the next working day.

The figures for 2011-12 financial year show a strong performance despite the huge modernisation programme underway at Royal Mail, which includes the introduction of new technology and better equipment to “respond to a changing mailbag”, a spokesman said,

Royal Mail’s regional operations director for Anglia area Nicola Scrivings said: “Royal Mail’s target for next-day delivery of First Class mail is one of the highest and most challenging next-day performance targets in Europe.

“We are extremely pleased that we are delivering a high quality service for our customers. It’s down to our local postmen and women who are determined to deliver the best possible service to our customers.”

The results are published today in the latest Royal Mail quality of service report covering the final quarter of the financial year, 2011 – 2012. Independent measurement of the performance of more than 950,000 sample letters, packets and parcels posted to nearly 5,600 addresses across the UK was used to compile the report.

The report showed the majority of all items of mail handled by Royal Mail – which delivers 59 million letters, packets and parcels in an average day to nearly 29 million addresses – arrived safely, on time at the correct destination.