Royal Mail are increasing their postage prices from the 4th of April 2011. As a result of this increase PC2Paper prices will increase accordingly. The postage price for first class mail up to 100g will increase to 46p whilst second class mail will increase to 36p. The cost of a Large Letter stamp will rise to 75p for first class items and 58p for second class items. In order to take into account these increases PC2Paper prices will rise after close of business on Friday 1st of April for all mail sent on the next working day Monday the 4th of April.

Royal Mail have recently released some new stamps featuring characters from myths and legends. The Magical Realms issue was released on the 9th of May and features characters from the legends of King Arthur, the Narnia stories of CS Lewis, JK Rowling's Harry Potter series and the Discworld of Sir Terry Pratchett. The 1st class stamps are available featuring Rincewind, Nanny Ogg, Dumbledore and Voldemort. Merlin and Morgan le Fay feature on the 60p stamp and Aslan and The White Witch feature on the 97p stamp.

Royal Mail have apologised for its performance during the festive period as it emerged last Christmas was the worst performance since records began. Only one in three letters sent via first class mail met the companies target of arriving on the next working day. Some customers only received their cards and presents in the middle of January. Royal Mail has said that the delays were caused by extremely bad weather during December but consumer groups are unconvinced. Here at PC2Paper we certainly experienced delays in December due to very deep snow meaning Royal Mail vans were unable to collect from post boxes and businesses. The knock on effect and huge backlog of mail caused delays well into the middle of January. We did also experience more lost mail during this period as a result. That being said, we did have rather a lot of snow with up to 18 inches in the area local to our office so we can understand why there was so much disruption to the usually very good service.

Royal Mail has recently launched a set of new stamps featuring the creations of Gerry Anderson. He is the man who created the Thunderbirds. The stamps feature Stingray, Captain Scarlet and Supercar, Joe 90 and the Thunderbirds.

Many commuters will have found they are paying a lot more for their train ticket this week as prices have gone up across the network. Prices have gone up an average of 6% but on some routes such as those run by Southeastern commuters have seen increases of as much as 12%. This article has a useful map showing the increases across the rail network so you can see how your journey has been affected.

PC2Paper is closed on Friday 31st of December and Monday 3rd of January. There are no postage collections or deliveries on these days. All mail sent after 4pm on Thursday 30th of December will be sent on the next available working day which is Tuesday the 5th of January.

The last recommended posting dates for Christmas mail have now passed. Delivery cannot now be guaranteed in time for Christmas. PC2Paper will continue to post all letters received as normal, however, customers should be aware that these are likely to arrive after Christmas.

PC2Paper is closed from Friday 24th of December through Tuesday 28th of December inclusive for the Christmas break. Any mail sent after close of business on Thursday 23rd of December will be sent on the next available working day Wednesday 29th the December. All mail sent during the period when we are closed will be queued in the system until the next day that we are open.

It has been necessary to suspend all of our tracked mailing services due to the bad weather conditions. Unfortunately as we cannot guarantee the reliability of our business collections during the current bad weather we have suspended these services until further notice. This affects Recorded Delivery and Special Delivery, International Signed Delivery and Airsure services. We will continue to review the situation and reinstate these as soon as we are able to do so.