There’s just two weeks before the consultation closes on Ofcom’s review of the postal service which proposes to slash postal delivery services.
Keeping up the pressure on Ofcom is important as there’s just two weeks before the consultation finishes on the industry regulator’s The Future Of The Postal Service review.
Leading the way in making her feelings known is The Handwritten Letter Appreciation Society founder Dinah Johnson who’s been bombarding Royal Mail with postcards to its Freepost address – including many carrying a picture of Penny Post founder Sir Rowland Hill.
And she’s been encouraging her 1,477 – and counting – society members to do the same, including stars such as actor, author and broadcaster Stephen Fry, tv presenter Dermot O’Leary, author Axel Scheffler, and comedian Rob Beckett, posting many of her missives on her Facebook page.
Swanage-based Dinah has been getting the point across via Freepost, Royal Mail Customer Services, PO Box 76085, EC1P 1HA, with near-daily messages like: “I was just writing to a new member in America about the threat to our postal service because of people creaming off all the profits and not reinvesting any of it back into the service.
“Putting up the cost of stamps again feels like you’re abusing all the people who do actually still write letters, rather than encouraging more people to write letters with affordable postage. Can you see how that feels?”
“Could you try promoting letter writing? I can help you if you’re stuck for ideas!
Dinah was echoing Sir Rowland Hill’s argument that if letters were cheaper to send people, including the poorer classes, would send more, thus eventually Royal Mail’s profits would go up, which led to the invention of the adhesive Penny Black stamp to indicate pre-payment of the postage charge – in its first year in 1840 the number of letters send in the UK doubled, and doubled again within 10 years.
Ofcom’s review is looking at how to keep Royal Mail’s business sustainable while meeting public expectations and the regulator has posited options including allowing RM to slash letter deliveries to just three days a week – which the government has said it will not support but the postal giant has been agitating for cuts to its legally-binding universal service obligation where it must deliver letters across the UK six days a week for the same price.
The official way to respond is by downloading the 10-question consultation response form and return it to the email address supplied by the deadline of 5pm on 3 April, 2024, or letters, postcards and cards can be sent to Freepost, Royal Mail Customer Services, PO Box 76085, EC1P 1HA.
