I READ with interest your article written by Ed Mezzetti on postal changes (Wiltshire Times, March 12) and I sympathise with Mr McLellan as I have the same problem and I am sure there are many other Royal Mail customers in the same situation.

It appears that an undated letter sent out last month by Royal Mail advises everyone of their intention to combine first and second deliveries. This was only confirming what has been going on in this part of town for many months as our deliveries could arrive any time between 7.30am to 1.30pm. To be fair they mainly arrived between 8-8.30am but we have certainly not had a second delivery for a very long time. If our mail arrived late we were advised this was due to staff shortages or holidays and the postman had to do another round first. One can accept this but it seems to be happening far too often, in fact on one occasion the post failed to turn up at all and on phoning to find out what was happening I was told that there would be no delivery due to staff shortages. I offered to collect my mail as I was waiting for some urgent letters only to be told I could not as it was sorted and would come out on Monday.

I moved into the above address in 1970 and our post was delivered between 6.30-7.15am followed by a second delivery at about 11am. Under the new system my post arrives between 12.30-2pm which quite frankly is pathetic as the postman passes my house at about 8.45am delivering mail along Bellefield Crescent, only to emerge again approximately 20-25-minutes later, crosses the road and proceeds to deliver mail on the other side of St Thomas Road, disappears into the wide blue yonder only to emerge at any time after midday coming back down our side of the road. On one occasion he did cross the road to deliver a package at about 9.15am then disappeared returning at lunchtime with the rest of our post. If you live on the wrong side of the road and rely on your post, hard luck!

To add to this appalling service, first class mail is often delivered two days late and we often receive other people's mail and other people call with mail to me wrongly delivered. All this and we are less than a quarter-of-a-mile from the sorting office.

We are paying for a first-class mail service and getting nothing short of a first class shambles which like so many things is forced on the public, like it or not, no-one cares. It is clear that in spite of modern technology, sorting machines, postal codes etc, the deliveries get worse. Why not enlist some 16-year-old paperboys and girls, as I am sure they would have more idea regarding deliveries than the present experts.

RW CHARLTON

St Thomas Road

Trowbridge

On Monday I posted letters at two different postboxes in Trowbridge at different times of day. On both occasions the postbox was full. Any scallywag could have lifted my letters out hoping to find something of value. The Royal Mail has reduced collections without providing bigger postboxes to accommodate the volume of letters. They need to plan more carefully. The picture is just as poor with deliveries. On two recent occasions our one and only daily delivery has been made at 5pm.

L J Cole

Berkeley Road

Trowbridge