Postal problems which have led to scores of bills being returned are just a temporary issue, according to the Postmaster General George Outerbridge.

Yesterday The Royal Gazette reported that Belco was seeing about 50 bills a day being returned, a tenfold increase since new regulations on addresses and mail boxes were introduced at the beginning of the month.

However Mr. Outerbridge said the Postal Service was still in the process of working with the public to help them catch up to with new regulations, although he said some areas were almost completely compliant with the new rules.

"We're right now in an auditing process. We're travelling across the Island starting in the West End and we're at Devonshire, Crawl Hill now," said Mr. Outerbridge.

"There are some areas that are 90 to 95 percent compliant, but other places still don't have mailboxes, or still don't have numbers on their homes."

According to the new regulations, mailboxes need to be moved as close as possible to the road, and all houses or mailboxes must be clearly numbered.

While in the past many letters were delivered despite errors in the address, the new regulations sends all mislabelled letters back to their sender.

"We're actively working with people and trying to get them compliant. We don't want to stop delivering mail, we're trying to be more efficient."

Mr. Outerbridge also said that the Postal Service has been working with several condominiums to continue mail service while they order and install cluster mailboxes.

"If they give us evidence that they've ordered a mailbox and an installation date, basically if they can show that they've been making an effort, we're continuing to deliver mail," he said.

A Belco spokesperson said on Thursday they had received bills returned because the residence had a mailbox in a poor location, but Mr. Outerbridge said that for the time being, mail is still being delivered to such boxes.

"No one should be getting mail back this week for that," he said. "I'm interested to know which addresses these were."

For the most part, Mr. Outerbridge said he was pleased with the reaction of the business community.

"A lot of these companies are trying to get in contact with their customers to make sure they have the proper address," he said.

"Companies have been adequately taking return to sender mail and have been reaching out to the community."

Despite the optimism expressed by Mr. Outerbridge, The Royal Gazette has received several e-mails complaining about returned letters caused by the new regulations.

Walter Roberts said that an invitation to a "prominent politician" was returned because the postal address was incorrect.

"The address of the person was well known by the post person and when queried, the postal authority indicated, 'It is the law and we are obliged to follow the law.'

"I come from a period when just a name and a parish were sufficient. Now we have competition from a myriad of delivery services and we are actually discouraging our population from using one of the government sources of revenue."

Brenda Warwick wrote: "Bermuda is so small, of course they could deliver the mail as before. We are lucky if we get one delivery a week, and the Post Office refuses to give you your mail even if you go to pick it up."

Joanna Norton wrote that her bank statements had been returned to the bank because of a mistake on the postal code.

"I telephoned the Post Office to complain as I was furious. I also asked them if they had informed the rest of the world about the correct way letters should be addressed when sending to Bermuda.

"All I can say is that I hope the Postal workers are prepared to do lots of overtime when the Christmas cards come in."

Despite the complaints, Mr. Outerbridge believes the problems being experienced will fade as the community adjusts to the new system, saying: "In a few months time when all of this is sorted out, I'm sure everyone will see the benefit."