So, the Royal Mail says it is delivering about 90 per cent of first-class letters the next day.

Perhaps I am one of the unlucky ten per cent - but from talking to others I don't think so.

I run my own business and the mail is still vital because not everything can be sent by computer and not everyone is online.

Since we lost our two local sub-post-offices, second delivery and the mail trains were scrapped and the Royal Mail gave itself more leeway by delivering any old time before lunchtime instead of first thing - oh, and second-class post rose in price - what has happened? Everything has slid downhill.

My local post almost never gets there the next day and more post has gone missing in the past four months than ever before. Worthing to/from Hove and Brighton seems particularly bad. What happens when you complain? Nothing.

The Royal Mail isn't interested unless the item was posted by special delivery.

A standard DL envelope containing a cheque and a single sheet of lightweight paper with a first-class stamp recently took four working days from the Charmandean area of Worthing to mine, near Worthing station.

Fifteen A4 Manilla envelopes with identical contents were posted first-class by the last post on the Wednesday after Easter to various addresses in Worthing, Lancing, Hove and Brighton.

Two arrived the next day, the rest didn't. Four took until the following Monday, one has never arrived, the rest Friday or Saturday. The people working with me needed the contents on time. Why should I have to get in my car and spend a day driving around all these people?

Before the Royal Mail started "diversifying", caught a financial cold and then started reorganising and rationalising to reduce its debts, first-class could be relied on to get there the next day.

Now we hear that the Royal Mail only likes small envelopes and is rumoured to be thinking about charging by size as well as weight.

Do the new bosses at the Royal Mail want us to send letters at all?

-Tim Nicholls, Worthing