Winchester MP Mark Oaten was due to visit Winchester's postal sorting office this morning (Friday) to reassess the crisis in the postal service.

Mr Oaten was to meet with postal workers at around 7am just before they began their rounds, to talk to staff and see for himself what conditions are like "on the ground".

The MP last went to the sorting office at Christmas and spoke to management and his latest visit follows months of complaints to Mr Oaten from Winchester residents about the state of the city's post.

In April, the MP reported having received more than 50 letters complaining that mail was arriving late or not at all.

Talking yesterday about today's meeting he said: "It's a progress report about what's being done to tackle the problems. The Winchester Royal Mail depot has had a lot of bad publicity and flack," he added.

Mr Oaten said he understood many of the problems the city's postal service had to deal with over staff sickness and recruitment and that management had told him it could only be solved in months not weeks.

"I understand some of the problems and I want to see how it's going," he said.

He added that he was now receiving fewer complaints about the service than previously.