A RETIRED West Devon farmer has suggested a novel way of reducing the impact of the Royal Mail potentially cutting back on deliveries.

Peter Tinson, of Tavistock, suggests splitting Royal Mail’s delivery services geographically and between days.

His idea comes as the company proposes cutting second-class letter deliveries to every other weekday. However, it wants to keep its six-day-a-week service for first class letters under proposals to reform the company.

The Royal Mail’s possible plan comes after regulator Ofcom suggested the company could reduce the number of delivery days from six to as few as three per week for all letters. The firm has struggled as letter volumes have plummeted in recent years, leading to heavy financial losses.

Peter, who used to work for the Post Office as a student, is a retired Peter Tavy farmer and says he understands the Royal Mail’s position: “As a former businessman I do understand you can’t keep running at a loss just to run a service the same way as before. The number of letters has been dropping for years and it doesn’t seem to matter whether you put a second or first class stamp on like it used to. They all seem to take the same time to be delivered.

“Therefore, to cut costs and still deliver within reasonable timeframes, I think Royal Mail should divide the town in two, say north and south of the viaduct. And then deliver first class first and then second in both areas, with first class over more days as that is the priority and people are paying for that faster service. Also I think Royal Mail is committed in their service agreement to first class.”

Royal Mail is legally obliged to deliver a one-price-goes-anywhere letter deliveries six days per week. Royal Mail's new proposals, to be considered by Ofcom, include: maintaining the one-price-goes-anywhere service; first class letters delivered daily, six days a week (Monday to Saturday); changing deliveries of all non-first class letters to every other weekday and parcels delivered up to seven days a week as currently.