Now Consignia wants to use your home as a postal depot

FIRST came the threat to early morning mail.

Now the Royal Mail is hoping to save time by asking householders to help it deliver the post.

Consignia, formerly the Post Office, has sent leaflets to thousands of private homes over the past few weeks asking for volunteers to let their houses be used as temporary delivery depots, or 'safe drops'.

The scheme works like this: sacks of letters are left at the safe drop house by Royal Mail van drivers. When the postman has finished his first round, instead of going back to the depot, he collects another sack of post from the safe drop.

This is 'part of our continuing efforts to improve the quality of our service locallyÉ enabling our delivery staff to spend much longer out on their delivery walks,' Consignia's leaflet says. But critics say it is a ploy to reduce man hours while paying ordinary people a pittance to prop up a crumbling postal service.

Householders who agree to take part will be paid just £144 a year.

Former postmaster general, retired MP Tony Benn, said Consignia was trying to get work done on the cheap. He said: 'It appears to be an attempt to get ordinary people to be mini sub-post offices.

'It involves a serious deterioration of the service in order to make it possible for the profitable business to be picked up by private companies – leaving the ordinary person without the service they've always had.'

Insurers warn that offering access to outsiders could put properties at risk.

Consignia said its staff are all strictly vetted and safe drops are always secure areas of a home, such as a lock-up porch or garage. It denied the scheme was a cost-cutting measure.

But a spokesman for the Association of British Insurers said: 'It could lead to insurers restricting household cover because the more people who have access to properties, the higher the risk of theft.' A spokeswoman for Postwatch, the consumer watchdog for the industry, was more concerned that householders be properly checked so that there was no threat to security of the mail.

She said: 'The Mail on Sunday has prompted me to write to Consignia asking it to explain how this will work – and how they can assure us of the integrity of the mail.

'We will want to know what checks and vetting procedures will be made on those who offer their homes as a safe drop.'

It was a campaign by The Mail on Sunday that forced Consignia to back down over its proposals to deliver post to businesses in towns and cities first, in preference to residential customers – a move that could have cost overtime to 65,000 postal workers and robbed people of their early morning post.

But Consignia is going ahead with plans to scrap its Good Friday delivery service, for the first time in 162 years. The company denies that the safe drop scheme is aimed at saving money, but admits it will cut sick-pay costs – thousands of hours are lost a year through injuries, often back problems. Consignia refuses to quantify the figures.

Last night Consignia said: 'This is designed to improve efficiency and quality of service. We believe it will speed up the delivery service and make life more comfortable for staff.

'It has been used informally in rural areas for years. Now we have introduced it into Hampshire and are looking at introducing it to areas where post is increasing in suburban areas of London.'

Chris Proctor, a spokesman for the Communication Workers' Union, said his members would be pleased if it lessened the weight of their sacks. But he added: 'We are concerned about security.'

The Royal Mail, headed by managing director Gillian Wilmot, turned to homeowners for help after local councils refused permission to install pouch boxes on the street to fulfil the same function.