FURIOUS Huddersfield postal customers were turned away from an under-staffed delivery office.

The Royal Mail site at Northumberland Street had two staff on Saturday serving dozens of people trying to pick up their undelivered mail.

With a queue of 40 people waiting, staff pulled down the shutters two minutes before the 12.30pm closing time and refused to deal with the backlog.

Some customers already experienced a wait of 48 hours for the mail to get back to the office from their homes.

Lowerhouses woman Lyn Theobald joined the line at around 11.45am.

She explained: "They were inadequately staffed, I counted three people served in 20 minutes.

"There were only two staff, a man and a woman, and the man was getting stressed and saying how he'd been working since 5am.

"Then at 12.20pm he pointed to the sixth person in line, a man in a blue anorak, and said he would be the last one served."

At 12.28 staff pulled down the shutters, but around 20 customers stayed and demanded to see the manager, to be told he was not working that day.

Some people drifted off but a small hardcore of around eight, including Mrs Theobald, refused to leave the premises.

The 57-year-old said: "He threatened to call the police and I told him to go right ahead, then he finally gave in and we got our packages."

But she was not impressed. She said: "You would think they would be open all day in the run-up to Christmas. I think it's disgraceful."

Heavily-pregnant Victoria Brooke also refused to go after the shutters were pulled.

The 22-year-old Salendine Nook woman had tried to collect her mail the day before, but had given up because of the long queue.

She said: "No-one came out and explained what was happening.

"I told the man that I was five and a half months pregnant, but he still wasn't going to serve me. I had to argue with him for five minutes to get my parcel."

Diane and John Howie-Collins travelled from Kirkheaton with their children four-year-old Paige and David, 5, to pick up a parcel. They also refused to leave, having been in line since 11.50am and were eventually given their package, a live plant.

Diane said: "It said on the little red slip that the package was perishable so I didn't want to wait until Monday to get it."

Also in the group who refused to leave was Marsh woman Zarina Shahbaz, who had arrived at 11.45am to pick up a parcel containing her child's Eid present.

The 33-year-old said: "I work Monday to Friday, so this was the only time I could come. I'm a government worker, but rest assured our customer service isn't as bad as this."

A Royal Mail spokeswoman apologised for any inconvenience.

She said:

"I'm sure people appreciate that our staff work very hard handling enormous amounts of mail over Christmas."

And the spokeswoman added: "There are other options besides going to the delivery office.

"You can get your parcel sent again or you can have it delivered to your nearest post office."

Royal Mail sets a 50p fee for parcels delivered to local post offices.