IN reply to Mr Harris’s letter regarding the postal service (Letter March 17). Allow me to shed some light on the matter.

I am a postal worker at Winton Delivery Office (although we’re based at Ringwood Road Industrial Estate).

Royal Mail are currently imposing what is known as ‘Phase 3’ of their modernisation plan in the Winton and Moordown areas.

Where once a postman on a bike delivered to one area early in the morning and got to know all his customers thereby delivering a trusted friendly and reliable service, sadly this has given way to two postmen sharing a diesel van delivering to, in some cases, an area that equates to four times the size of the previous delivery route.

Sadly this results in some residents receiving no mail for long periods due to the fact that by the time delivery is attempted in the cases of large blocks of flats the time locks have long since expired thus meaning the mail is returned to the sorting office.

This new working practice is not welcomed by the staff, additionally our start and finish times have been altered so the days of early morning post is consigned to history, and some routes have been so badly planned there have been postmen still delivering at 6pm!

We must be the only company in the UK that are forced to handle and deliver our competitors mail at a loss to ourselves, it puzzles me as to why for example my bank statement is franked by a company called UKMail, yet I’ve sorted, placed and delivered said item into a mail bag!

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