IT used to be a byword for reliability and efficiency. Yet today, like so many other public services, Royal Mail has become just another source of irritation and stress.

Almost 12,000 people in the York area complained about the post last year up by nearly a quarter on the year before. Their grievances included everything from mail being lost, misdelivered, delayed and damaged to improperly redirected.

So bad has the situation become that leading councillors have been moved to describe the postal service as "scandalous" and "second class". What really upsets customers, as our report reveals today, is the sheer number of letters going astray. More than 4,000 letters were lost in the York area in 2004/5: 400 more than the year before. That is simply not acceptable. Some of those letters will have contained cash: others important documents. In still more there will have been irreplaceable personal treasures such as family photos.

A controversial Channel 4 documentary in 2004, which purported to show Royal Mail staff stealing money and credit cards from letters, shook many people's faith in the postal system.

But whether the reason for the disappearance of those 4,000 letters in York is theft or, more likely, simple inefficiency, the end result is the same. People feel they can no longer trust the post.

Royal Mail insists that things are now improving. Figures published at the end of next month will reflect that, it says.

Let's hope so. Because the longer this state of affairs continues, the more we will switch to alternative means of communication, such as email and even private delivery. That would be a tragedy not least because it would pose a threat to the future viability of yet more rural and suburban post offices.