CONTENTIOUS plans to use part of North Yorkshire as a testing ground for the abolition of daily second class mail deliveries will come into effect next week.

The Thirsk delivery office is one of 14 in the country to scrap its second post in a pilot scheme introduced by Royal Mail.

Starting on Monday, householders will receive only one delivery a day as a result of a massive shake-up of services designed to reverse more than £1bn of financial losses.

The scheme is part of a three-year plan aimed at returning the Consignia group, which has announced it is changing its name to the Royal Mail Group by the end of the year, to profitability.

By re-organising deliveries to provide customers with one daily delivery, Royal Mail expects to save about £350m a year.

The second post currently accounts for about 20 per cent of delivery costs, but only handles four per cent of the UK's mail. The new plans aim to reduce costs. There are fears other services will also be cut back in a bid to save money.

Vale of York MP Anne McIntosh has written to trade and industry secretary Patricia Hewitt, calling for a clear-cut plan to stop the closure of more sub-post offices.

She said Consignia should be given the operating freedom and incentives it needed to compete with privatised European rivals in Holland and Germany.