Tens of thousands of letters and parcels delayed as Royal Mail misses nine out of its 12 targets in the last year

Tens of thousands of letters and parcels were delayed or lost altogether against a background of cuts in services and strikes.

Official figures published last night reveal that the organisation missed nine of the 12 minimum service levels.

Tens of thousands of letters and parcels were delayed or lost altogether against a background of cuts in services and strikes

The revelations will increase anger over the £3.04million earned by chief executive, Adam Crozier, making him the country's highest paid civil servant.

The reliability of the first-class delivery service fell to 85.2per cent. This was below the organisation's target which requires that at least 93per cent of first class mail is delivered by the following day.

Royal Mail also missed delivery targets for second class post, special delivery and standard parcels, the cornerstones of the service.

Last week, the Royal Mail chairman Alan Leighton praised the performance of Mr Crozier, saying he had done everything expected of him.

Royal Mail chief executive Adam Crozier was pictured on the beach earlier this week but chairman Alan Leighton praised his performance

However, it is clear that the business missed the crucial targets, a failure condemned by the official consumer body PostWatch.

'Customer expectations were definitely not exceeded  -  indeed, were not met,' said chairman Millie Banerjee.

'Royal Mail's management team should focus on providing what customers want and need.'

A series of strikes over pay, pensions and working hours caused huge disruption to services during last summer.

PostWatch said Royal Mail, under Mr Crozier, had been slow to put in place a recovery plan once the dispute was settled.

'What the figures do not reveal is what effect the strikes have had on the posting habits of social and business customers.

Many had to find other ways to communicate. This will have reduced postal volumes, which will in turn damage Royal Mail's financial stability for years to come.

Average daily volumes are down from 84 million items to about 80 million.

'It looks like the start of a downward trend partly caused by customers being forced to find other ways to pay bills, receive statements, order goods or respond to enquiries.'

Mr Crozier, aged 44, has presided over a dismantling of the UK's postal service.

Thousands of post offices have already been closed with more to go.

The second delivery has been scrapped, while the first delivery of the day has been moved back to the afternoon for millions of homes and businesses.

At the same time collections from post boxes have been cut and Sunday collections have been scrapped.

Mr Crozier's basic salary last year was £633,000  -  but this is only the beginning.

He also got a performance-related bonus of £190,000, a 'cash supplement' in lieu of a pension payment of £208,000 and benefits of £20,000.

The icing on the cake was £1,993,000 from a long-term incentive plan payment, accrued over three years and linked to performance.

This brought his total package to £3.04million for 2007/08  -  about 180 times a typical postman's salary of £17,000.

Royal Mail operations director, Ninian Wilson, insisted performance is improving. 'The immediate objective for everyone working in the business is to deliver further improvements in quality of service and restore the record levels seen before last year's dispute,' he said.