Dave Grylls, of Wolverton Drive, Kingsteignton, writes:

Please tell me what on earth has happened to our collection and mail deliveries.

At Kingsteignton it would be reasonable to assume that we are semi rural, and yet there are no collections at my local post box from 11.45am on Saturday until 11.45am on Monday. So, if you post a letter any time at the weekend do not expect it to get to its destination in a hurry because it will simply not leave until the following week.

I consider this to be absolutely scandalous, and one wonders whether it would be quicker by carrier pigeon or even by smoke signals from the top of Haytor.

Is there indeed one service that has declined so dramatically over the past ten years or more, as has our once wonderful Royal Mail.

Deliveries? well, there again this is pretty pathetic, and all bearing in mind the prices never stop climbing up and up.

We pay more and yet more for little or no actual service.

The usual delivery pattern runs somehing like this: no delivery or quite sparse delivery on Monday, obviously because nothing very much has happened at the weekend. Tuesday everything happens because we are getting back up to speed, or are we? The door mat is littered with mail, mostly all rubbish ready for the recycle bin, or maybe a reminder to say your motor insurance expired last week.

This is not a time to get excited, because now there are not enough postmen to cover all the deliveries, and half the stand-ins cannot read anyway.

Two days pass and a postman is not to be seen; suddenly on Friday he bursts through the mist. Maybe another avalanche of circulars, and your bank statement to say you were overdrawn last week. Those in rural areas probably find themselves more abandoned than those of us in cities and towns.

Seriously, it is not very funny. in fact it becomes more serious by the day.

I wonder how many people realise that our post office delivers our competitors' mail cheaper than our own. It does not end there, as we can rest assured that more post offices are set to close in the near future.

The problem, I am afraid, has its roots with a couple of directives fom the European parliament.

One hopes that at long last we shall wake up and perhaps Mr Cameron will do something about it, for I am afraid both Labour and the Liberal Democrats are happy to see us on a downward spiral to complete non identity.THIS AND OTHER LETTERS IN OUR DIGITAL EDITION