IF readers check their local mail collection box they could be in for a shock. I was shocked to discover that my local box at Uplands is having its last collection time changed on week days to 9.0 am! (7am Saturdays). Unless we are in the habit of doing our correspondence in the early hours it will not be on its way until the next day and will stay in the box at the mercy of the snails — they love to chomp on paper and glue. So far my protests to Royal Mail have yielded the excuse that the box only averages 50 items a day and is within half a mile (just) of another box. But that is a 20-minute round trip back up a steep hill for a fit person. There are many elderly and less ambulant in this area and this supposed cost-cutting exercise will discriminate against them. It will also result in more cars trying to stop at the difficult and dangerous junction where the Ford Street box is located. And does it really cost very much to empty a box on the way past? I am told that there is no intention of closing this box, but if its use is discouraged and the number of items declines further, it will not be long before that happens. Although the Government did not do Royal Mail any favours when it opened mail services up to private carriers, surely it needs to be encouraging the use of its services, not making it more difficult for us to do so. What is Royal Mail trying to do — commit commercial suicide? Terence Scarborough Tavistock