As reported in yesterday's Courier, there is a proposal by the City Council to stop using Royal Mail to handle its second-class mail from 1st July and to use TNT Post, the largest private postal sector operator in the UK instead.
As I indicated to the Courier :
"Everyone accepts that, in the current financial climate, the council needs to get best value wherever possible but we must also be confident we're getting a quality service and that correspondence will be delivered promptly.
"I suspect the decision is more about securing best value than in response to the problems experienced during the introduction of the Royal Mail's new delivery system."
I raised the issue of quality of proposed service and the City Council's Corporate Improvement Manager has advised me that :
"This report is very much about making a saving without any detrimental impact on service. A pilot was undertaken to ensure that the process of using TNT was sound as it involved changes to how mail was prepared for issue and also to establish what savings could actually be realised. There were no issues in the handling of our mail by them. TNT however do not deliver the mail to our citizens that is still undertaken by Royal Mail.
As a result of the success of the pilot and savings possible, the above report is being brought forward to roll out the service Council wide."