ROYAL Mail has hit back after residents were urged to avoid using red envelopes this Christmas.

MP Tobias Ellwood visited a Royal Mail delivery office earlier this month to see how it deals with the huge quantity of letters and cards which pass through at the busiest time of the year for deliveries.

“Staff informed me that the fluorescent orange codes printed on each envelope for scanning machines to register the address cannot be picked up if printed on a red envelope,” he said.

“This means every red envelope has to be sorted manually.

“My message this Christmas to companies and customers is therefore ditch red envelopes or add an address on a white sticker to help our hard-working posties get every letter delivered as quickly as possible.”

However, The Royal Mail released a statement this morning stating customers are welcome to use any form of envelope or ink for their Christmas cards

“As the universal service provider, Royal Mail is proud to deliver the Christmas post for consumers and businesses. Our Intelligent Letter Sorting Machines can process up to 50,000 items an hour.

"Anything the machines are unable to read are almost instantaneously passed through to our data centre where our team of ‘address detectives’ identify the correct address. There is no impact on the delivery timescale for the customer.

"Customers are welcome to use any form of envelope or ink for their Christmas cards. The only advice we always offer - is to always use the postcode.”

The Royal Mail has recommended a series of last posting dates to ensure people get their cards in time for Christmas – second class is December 18, first class December 20 and special delivery, December 23.