A post office worker said mail in Hamilton is being taken to St. George?s to be sorted before returning to Hamilton to be delivered.

The woman, who wished to remain anonymous, disputed Postmaster General George Outerbridge?s claims in this newspaper that the mail was not first being forwarded to the east end.

The woman works at the old Airport hangar in St. George?s, where mail is checked before being sent back to Hamilton to be delivered to businesses and post office boxes.

She said the new system has been in place since March 6 and estimated that it was taking four days for letters that are posted in Hamilton to be delivered there. She said the old system taking the same route used to see mail being delivered in two days on average.

She said she was speaking up because the public needed to know what was happening at the postal service. Last week Mr. Outerbridge responded to claims that the Bermuda service was equivalent to that of a developing nation.

He said that the postal service was in the midst of a transition with the process was being streamlined so delays were inevitable. He added that the service was sorting out its ?teething? problems.

Attempts to contact Mr. Outerbridge yesterday were not successful.