A while ago, I wrote a letter calling attention to the crazy policy of outsourcing part of the delivery of post to the Dutch firm TNT, comically renamed WHISTL with two different people delivering post to exactly the same addresses.

WHISTL has now withdrawn from this business. This follows the collapse of the parcel delivery firm, City Link, last Christmas. The staff in these firms on all sorts of zero-hours-like contracts have been treated abominably and now have been suddenly made redundant.

The Royal Mail is required to provide a universal service while its rivals can cherry pick what they provide with much lower standards.

Isn’t it time to look at this again and bring all basic postal services back within the remit of the Royal Mail where they belong and where they have been efficiently carried out for many, many years.

Bill Stephenson

Cunningham Park, Harrow