Return Royal Mail to the people

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MOST readers will surely disagree with MP David Nuttall’s view on further Post Office privatisation.

Just over a decade ago, the residents of Bury could post a letter at a reasonable cost and confidently expect both early and late morning deliveries.

Today, residents and small businesses pay 41p for a second class stamp and get one delivery a day, which, if they are lucky, arrives before lunch.

The reason for this and the loss of local post offices is earlier partial privatisation under which lucrative parts of the mail service were opened to competition, leaving Royal Mail with the unenviable task of trying to maintain a universal service on massively reduced revenues.

Further privatisation will only exacerbate the situation, with even higher prices and a worse level of service.

Royal Mail has long been one of this country’s most respected and reliable institutions. The fact that Royal Mail is in its current state constitutes a triumph of political dogma over common sense.

What Royal Mail needs now is not, as Mr Nuttall suggests, more privatisation, but proper investment and a return to full public ownership.

Cllr Sandra Walmsley Moorside Ward Bury Metropolitan Borough Council