Borehamwood's postal service has come under fire from the town's mayor who has said he would prefer to see carrier pigeons handling his mail.

Councillor Martin Heywood, the Mayor of Elstree and Borehamwood, said so many items had been lost in the post he was now asking people to fax any important documents to him.

"The postal service is so incompetent it is unbelievable. The amount of items that get lost is a disgrace. I have had invitations and council documents sent to me that I have not received," he said.

Mr Heywood made the comments at a recent meeting of Elstree and Borehamwood Town Council, where councillors heard that the town council's post was not being delivered because its regular postman was off sick.

Councillors were also shocked to learn that a manager at the Borehamwood sorting office had offered to make guaranteed deliveries to the council offices every day but only if it paid £2,205 per annum for the extra service.

The Royal Mail, now called Consignia, this week defended the service in Borehamwood, and said: "We apologise that Elstree and Borehamwood Town Council have experienced difficulties with their mail deliveries.

"This has been due to an unfortunately high level of sick leave at the delivery office. In order to maintain and improve service, amendments have been made, such as recruiting additional employees to cover sick leave and increasing the number of reserve post persons in the office."