Royal Mail postal deliveries on Saturday could be axed under radical plans by industry watchdogs to save money, it emerged today.
The plans are expected to be tabled within the next 10 days.
The plans would help balance the books at the cash-strapped Royal Mail, which this week announced a drop in profits and losses totalling £100 million in the last financial year.
But industry regulators have distanced themselves from the plan.
A spokesman for independent postal regulator Postcomm said: “There is no truth in the suggestion we are going to recommend a reduction in service from six to five days.
“The status quo is totally enshrined in law.”
The watchdog will submit evidence to a review looking at the future of the postal industry.
All submissions to that review are due by May 19.
Campaigners have reacted with anger at the idea saying the plan would hit vulnerable groups hardest. A Help the Aged spokesman said: “This would severely impact pensioners, many of whom rely on the postal service as their only form of communication.”
Sian Jones, of the Communication Workers Union, said: “It is absolutely shocking for the regulator, of all people, to suggest moving from a six day service to a five day service.
“We should be investing, not cutting, what was once the leading postal service in the world.”
Yesterday Royal Mail bosses said they would oppose plans to cut deliveries on Saturday .
The Post Office has already stopped twice-daily deliveries.
The Royal Mail this week blamed fulfilling its universal service obligations - its promise to deliver letters to every address in the country for the same price - for its financial losses.
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