A MOTHER has slammed a town's postal system after having to wait three weeks for a birthday present from her son in Australia.

Julie Latham, who celebrated her 49th birthday on Sunday, was expecting the gift from her son Karl to arrive just a week after he posted it from Queensland, at the beginning of April.

But she finally picked up the package from the town's sorting office in Bank Parade yesterday after it had appeared to fall foul of recent problems that have seen the town's postmen struggling to cope with new workloads after the second post was scrapped just before Easter.

Julie, a shop manager, of Oak Street, Burnley, said she received no post of any kind for two weeks up until yesterday.

She added: "It seems crazy to think it has managed to travel 12,000 miles across the world, but ground to a halt when it came to Burnley - just down the road from me.

"I went to the sorting office twice this week where I was among lots of other people in the same predicament and asked to pick my mail up but they told me it had all been bagged up to be sent out the day after. We didn't receive post of any kind for nearly two weeks.

"Karl sent it in plenty of time to ensure it got to me for my birthday.

"He was very disappointed when I told him it hasn't reached me yet.

"I'm just relieved to have finally got it."

Karl, 25, works as a car body repairer, in Cairns.

The Lancashire Evening Telegraph last week revealed how thousands of letters and parcels remained undelivered as postal staff in Burnley battled with a backlog of work from before Easter.

The problem meant many households were without post for more than a week.

Leader of Burnley Council Stuart Caddy, a Burnley postman and a local rep for the Communication Workers Union (CWU), said he sympathised with Julie's wait.

He said: "I cannot comment on individual packages, but I feel extremely sorry for Mrs Latham if she has had to wait all this time.

"I have worked here all my life and I have never known anything as shambolic as this.

"We are doing our best to sort it out."

A spokesman for the Royal Mail, which runs the sorting office, said: "We apologise for any inconvenience. We are hoping to get back on track by Monday."

A spokesman for the Australian High Commission in London said: "Normal deliveries from Australia take around a week.

"Mail sent from the UK to Australia takes less time because of the time differences.

"It should certainly not have taken so long for it to reach its destination in the UK."