Croydon is full of TNT and DHL and Royal Mail. It's called competition and choice.
How would you feel if there was only one bank in the Uk and we all had no other choice?
Downsizing is now part of life. Technology is also to blame for the reduction and need for manual labour. Maybe the transferrable skills of Postmen and postwomen will be useful to the other postal operators.

Tom, surrey,

The regulator is the problem. They are allowing big companies such as BT to use TNT and the like who collect the mail then get Royal Mail to deliver it for a cheaper price than Royal Mail are allowed to charge. If TNT want the busines they should deliver the mail as well!

A C Stuart, Manchester, England

So we all use email or IM where we can - quicker and cheaper. It is called progress and I reckon in 20 years from now when I'll be an urn full of ashes there will be maybe just one snail mail delivery a week plus a parcel/package service.

Chris Goodman, Fareham, England

I must confess, I hadn't noticed that so many houses had been knocked down.

michael murphy, brightlingsea, england

Not sure what this means?

Mark Bissett, Torbay, Devon

The redundant Mr. West's comments are just that. Funny how for 150 years the Post Office made a profit on the backs of postmen/women's low wages, supplemented by overtime.Now that there is only one delivery and virtually no overtime for the staff, why aren't they making a profit?

Brian O'Connell, Liverpool, UK

My experience of the Post Office when I was in UK earlier this year, left much to be desired.
Less staff longer queues, no wonder my British Mail now comes from the continent.

Mike, Paphos, Cyprus

I run a small business that uses the Royal Mail both for own use and mailing ofor customers.

Over the last year or so, the service quality has deteriorated for sent, received and collected mail, service availability has reduced, bureaucratic complexity has increased, the service is now significantly more expensive and future planned measures will increase the cost yet further.

Clearly if you let good private sector managers loose on a huge public monopoly, you end up with the worst possible result - profit at the expense of service; complexity in place of simlicity. The same has happened with the railways and utilities.

I'm no great fan of the public sector on delivery and well remember the uselessness of 1970's monoliths, but maybe we just have to make a choice sometimes between maintaining core services fairly and simply for the wider benefit of society or forcing everything into meeting the rigours of the marketplace, irrespective of the direct and indirect cost to society.

MarkS, York,

As a former Royal Mail senior manager (redundant in 2004), I can only say that we saw this coming. Unfortunately the union blocked every attempt to improve efficiency and management (under government guidance) was too weak to push through the necessary changes to working practices. Competition means that the monopoly provider will lose busness and jobs, but sadly the ones that will be left are those that will service the unprofitable bits that the private sector don't want. That inevitably means state subsidy at some point if we are to have a rural, domestic postal service. Daily delivery to every household is too labour intensive to be profitable and will be largely left to Royal Mail who are required to do it by the regulator whether or not it makes commercial sense..

Dave West, Croydon,

I must confess, I hadn't noticed that so many houses had been knocked down.

michael murphy, brightlingsea, england

If this news had been broadcast in france you'd have 30000 people marching on the streets tomorrow....come on England where is the backbone?

English man in France.

Richard, Strasbourg, France

Before Ian Griffiths, Head of Royal Mail letters goes, does he think that I could have all of the letters I know have been posted to me but never arrived - including three Father's Day cards. Oh, and I did call their "customer services" to complain but she just got aggressive and then hung up on me.

Nigel Rawlings, Tonbridge, Kent

Royal Mail is obliged to deliver to anywhere in the country. In seeking to reduce costs under "competitive" pressure where does this cost comparison come from? Are there actual competitors who are willing to sign a contract to offer the same or better universal service at prices dictated by Ofcom to Royal Mail?

Royal Mail seems to be this government's whipping boy, PFI contractors their spoilt child.

Bob , London, UK

The attack on the Royal Mail monopoly has been yet another 'inspired' disaster.
I have not sent a parcel since what is now Parcelforce was split from the Post Office, removing the contact point from the Town.
The telephone business was lost to BT.
Now with the rapid growth of email and text messaging, the volume of private and business correspondence can only be falling. What happens? The profitable bulk mailing is removed from Royal Mail.
The only visible growth area, from the point of view of the private individual, would seem to be in internet trading. The goods have to be delivered. But the value will be in moving parcels rather than letters.
The large mail sorting centres are fast and efficient, but a letter sent from one side of the town to the other has to go on a round trip of 50-60 miles to the mail centre between posting and delivery. Cost effective in bulk but not if the volume of letters handled falls.
So ...?

Tony, Farnham, Surrey

Why are we allowing the Government to break up the Post Office in order to privatise it? As this is what they are clearly doing. It is not their Post Office, it is ours.

speak, An English Shire not 'uuukaa', England