The proposed removal of a Dunedin postbox has prompted the Postal Workers Union to slam New Zealand Post about its ''deliberate running down of its letter business''.
Union Southern District president John Maynard said the proposed postbox removal at 78 Highgate in Belleknowes on February 3 was the latest move by NZ Post to run down its letter delivery service.
The earlier moves included delivering mail every second day and cutting back on delivering FastPost mail on a Saturday.
NZ Post was ignoring people's concerns about the removal of postboxes, he said.
The union was against NZ Post removing boxes but if it must, the public should be consulted.
The notice NZ Post put on the box warning people about the proposed removal and how to provide feedback was so small many people failed to see it.
NZ Post should advertise the proposed removal in newspapers so people were aware feedback was being sought, he said.
The State-Owned Enterprises Act had a provision which required NZ Post to regard the interests of the community in which it operates.
The removal of postboxes was not complying with the provision of the Act, he said.
''We are really concerned about how people are reacting very strongly and the company not complying to the provision.''
Someone had put a large note on the Belleknowes postbox yesterday reminding NZ Post about the provision.
NZ Post regional service delivery manager Murray Rei said the number of letters in the NZ Post network was falling by about 1million every week on average.
''Volumes have virtually halved in the past decade from more than a billion letters in 2006 to 578 million in 2016. It would be irresponsible not to adjust our network in response to this.''
NZ Post complied with the State-Owned Enterprises Act, he said.
''We have a network of postboxes throughout the country situated in convenient locations for customers to post their mail and parcels. We comply with the Act, and the changes we are making will ensure we will continue to operate in communities across the country.''
