BY TOBY ROBINSON

POSTAL services in Crewe and the surrounding areas began to return to normal this week as the spontaneous three-day strike by the workforce came to an end.

With the root of the problem created by a dispute in Liverpool, Monday's decision to cease disruption in Merseyside resulted in the Weston Road depot's 600 workers returning to work on Tuesday morning.

"We apologise to our customers in the CW postcode areas for the disruption," said a Royal Mail spokesperson.

"We will now be pulling out all the stops to get services back to normal, a task which is likely to take a few days.

"To begin with, we will probably make just one large delivery a day in most areas to help us clear the backlog."

The unofficial, unlawful industrial action began at Crewe Mail Centre on Thursday night when staff refused to handle mail from Liverpool where workers had been on strike since Monday, January 15.

In a statement made by the branch manager for the Communication Workers' Union, Dave Gregory said: "Unique pressure was applied to four individuals to work on the diverted mail as opposed to their normal duty which was to process Crewe collections.

"This was seen as intimidatory by the workforce who believed that processing Crewe collections should be paramount to the Crewe office as they have a loyalty to the local community.

"The postal workers at Crewe would like to apologise to the general public for any inconvenience through this avoidable dispute."

The postal workers ensured there was a presence outside the Weston Road depot during the strike.