UNRELIABLE post has forced a scout group to think again about the organisation of one of its biggest annual fundraisers.

A number of forms sent through the post for a plant sale took six weeks to arrive - and some never turned up at all - costing at least £200.

Now, the 13th Lancaster Scout Group says it will resort to delivering and collecting orders for the sale by hand.

For the past few years the scouts have distributed order forms for bedding plants to hundreds of Lancaster residents.

Local people fill them in and send them back via the scout's Freepost address - helping to raise about £3,000.

"We used to deliver by hand but we thought the Freepost service was £100 well spent and have used it for three years. But this year the wheels well and truly came off," says assistant scout leader Kevin Greene.

"We sent out the order forms in March but the week before the delivery date last Saturday we realised we were £500 worth of orders down on last year - which set the alarm bells ringing."

When parents confirmed sending orders that he had not received he contacted the Post Office - only to be assured that all letters received had been delivered.

But Kevin says post franked on April 4 was not received until May 14 six weeks later and right on the deadline for orders "We take a percentage of the funds for the scout group. We are trying our best because we can't hit the parents for all the fund raising and so we are doing things like this to spread the burden over the whole community.

"Now we are worried we might lose customers because there could be people waiting to receive plants when we have not even got their orders."

A spokesman for Royal Mail and the Post Office, says they were sorry' the scouts had had a problem.

"They have bought a product from us and it has not worked and so we need to investigate. If we have let them down we will look into it," she told the Citizen.