Was it worth the rush?

A "mystery shopping" exercise by Postwatch, the postal services consumer watchdog, found that 20,000 post boxes a day were emptied too early.

According to its research almost one in five collections were up to 15 minutes earlier than they said on the box.

The Royal Mail apologised for the findings and said it would be raising the issue with local sorting offices.

Meeting standards

A similar proportion of post boxes were emptied between 15 and 45 minutes after the last collection time, according to the survey of 398 post boxes around the United Kingdom.

Postwatch chairman Peter Carr said: "We will continue to use every opportunity to press the case for change.

"Collections from post boxes should be covered by a licence standard of service."

Postwatch has now referred the issue to the Trading Standards Institute.

The Royal Mail apologised for premature collections.

"We've taken this up with local sorting offices to try to ensure this never happens," it said.