RESIDENTS in Redbridge could end up being charged up to £14 a week to receive their early morning mail if a pilot scheme by Royal Mail is successful.

Royal Mail has decided to try out a new scheme in chosen areas across the UK.

The trials will mean customers that receive over 20 letters will have their mail delivered between 7am and 9am and everyone else will have to wait between 9am and noon.

These areas will have their mail delivery reduced to once a day and to receive an early morning delivery they will be charged one of three different charges of either £14, £10 or £5.

The proposals have already met with caution from the Communications Workers Union. Assistant union branch secretary of Romford sorting office Dave McPhearson feels the decision to charge for an early morning delivery will be very unpopular with the public and believes that residents will not pay it.

He said:"We are not in favour of a charge before nine o'clock. It is unnecessary, we should be concentrating on getting post early to businesses and fitting the residential post around them.

"I can see some small businesses who may not receive over 20 letters a day but need an early morning delivery for cheques getting into financial difficulties. It is like holding a gun to their head."

The idea behind the trials is to find out how cheaply the service can be run without losing money. At the moment Royal Mail is losing 1.5 million a day.

In the South East the areas that have been chosen for the trial are Crawley, East Sussex and Bow in East London.

July 17, 2002 09:30