Chris Huhne thanks Eastleigh's postmen and women for their Christmas toil

12.00.00am GMT Fri 16th Dec 2005

Chris thanked Richie Hunt, who was handling the delivery to Chris's home in Dutton Lane that day.

Eastleigh MP Chris Huhne visited the Eastleigh delivery office before the daily delivery this week to say thank you to all the post office workers for the hard work they put in to give the rest of us a happy Christmas.

Chris Huhne was shown around the Eastleigh delivery office - one of the biggest in the country - by Delivery Office manager Paul Cahill (pictured with Paul Farthing who manages Eastleigh, Fair Oak and Horton Heath and Pat Eccles who manages Chandler's Ford and Baddesley).

Chris also thanked Richie Hunt, the post man who was handling the delivery to Chris's home in Dutton Lane, Eastleigh that day.

Chris heard that 111 postmen and women are responsible for ensuring that Eastleigh's massive Christmas mailbag is delivered to more than 35,000 addresses at Royal Mail's busiest time of the year.

"The sheer scale of the deliveries is hard to imagine until you see it all piled up" said Chris. "There has been a boom in internet purchases, which means that post men and women are sorting and delivering far more parcels than ever before.

"This is good news for the future of the Royal Mail, though that is probably not what postal workers think just at the moment! I think they all deserve a really good break after Christmas" said Chris.