AN Upton resident has accused Royal Mail of cutting off remote communities after bosses stopped postmen delivering newspapers along with the mail.

Ian Mabbutt, of West Withy Farm, said local people had relied on their postmen and women to bring them their daily newspapers for many years.

But the service came to an abrupt halt last week when staff based at Wiveliscombe Sub Post Office were ordered to stop the deliveries without warning.

"I understand from my newsagent that Royal Mail's reasoning for withdrawing this service delivering newspapers along with normal post and advertising materials is because delivering newspapers did not form part of the individual postman's responsibilities and contract of employment.

"My newspapers have been delivered by the postman since I moved here three years ago," said Mr Mabbutt.

"It affects many other local people who receive their newspapers in the same way and for whom a journey to Wiveliscombe to collect newspaper would involve a round trip taking 40 minutes daily."

Mr Mabbutt has written to Royal Mail regional chiefs in Taunton in the hope of forcing a change of heart.

He said he believed postmen and woman in other rural areas were allowed to deliver newspapers and that the Wiveliscombe-based service had been running for at least 50 years.

"Given the longevity of the service, the number of postmen involved and the wide spread of the service in this locality, it is clearly beyond comprehension that Royal Mail management did not know this service was being provided by postmen," he said.

"It is, therefore, entirely reasonable that the public believe this delivery of newspapers service to be a Royal Mail service.

"And it is a service provided by Royal Mail that individual members of the public, like myself, were paying for quite happily - simply because it is a service we greatly value.

"Most organisations, when they find a service that customers are prepared to pay for, look to develop the service rather than kill it off."

He accused the Royal Mail of jeopardising the profitability of the local newsagent involved and said it was wrong for bosses to stop the deliveries without any advanced notice.

He said the firm should look at restoring the service and even widening it to include parcel deliveries to save additional lorries and vans having to drive out to rural areas.

The Free Press contacted Royal Mail's press office both last week and again this week about the withdrawal of the service, but no-one was available for comment before the paper went to press.