THE Post Office has apologised after rural residents were left without the service for more than a month.

Villagers in Ingleton, Teesdale, were left frustrated when the mobile service failed to show up in August.

Veteran Grant Davies said he is one of several residents who have complained to the Post Office and despite at least five letters of complaint being sent, villagers were still left in the dark as to why the thrice-weekly service had 'vanished'.

The 80-year-old said a public meeting was held when the main village post office closed in 2006 and residents were promised a mobile service would be provided because of the number of elderly residents and with the nearest post office being three miles away in Staindrop.

Mr Davies, who has lived in the village for nearly three decades, said the service has worked mostly without problems in the time since but did not show up on August 21 and has not appeared since.

He said that whilst many residents expected delays or some days to be cancelled; the lack of information provided by the company's customer service team had been "cavalier".

"This is the fourth week it has not turned up at any one of the three days and what has annoyed the whole village is the fact we are dependent on it for several things and we have had no notification that it is not turning up," he said. "The Post Office committed to provide that service and treated the village very badly. It's cavalier."

He added: "If we don't protest and they can see it has not been used for three weeks then they might have an excuse to stop it and people have already stopped using it as much because of the irregular service."

Mr Davies said he was further frustrated when he did not receive a reply to his letter and a telephone number given to him to contact the customer services team was "not recognised".

"A lack of information causes the problem," he added.

A Post Office spokeswoman apologised to residents and said the problem lay with "connection issues" in the mobile unit.

She said: “We are incredibly sorry to those customers in Ingleton for the problems experienced with the Post Office mobile service. This is unfortunately. due to connection issues in the mobile van.

“We understand how important Post Office services are to communities, and we are working hard to resolve the connection issues experienced as a matter of urgency. Once again, we are really sorry for any inconvenience caused to our customers.”

It is not yet known when the service will resume.