PROPOSALS to open up postal deliveries to competition will see private companies able to hire their own postmen, and put up their own boxes.

Would this mean the end of our traditional mail system? And how will it affect people in Bolton, especially those in rural areas like Egerton and Rivington? IT may have ended in ignominy, but Charles I's reign was notable for two aspects which still resonate, more than 360 years on.

One, was paving the way for Britain's only experiment with republicanism, and the other was setting up a monopoly over delivering mail.

But, while it has survived the transition from ponies to carriages to vans, this monopoly is now facing its greatest challenge. Proposals published recently by the industry regulator Postcomm will see the biggest shake-up in the postal system since the Roundheads took the field against the Cavaliers.

Not only do they raise the prospect of private companies employing their own postmen and setting up their own postboxes, but there are fears the plans could undermine the national delivery network.

While companies may fight each other for a share of the profitable inter-city deliveries, they may be less likely to put their hands up when it comes to driving their vans along dirt tracks to reach remote farmhouses.

Carl Webb, North west regional secretary for the Communication Workers Union (CWU), says some parts of the community could suffer.

"Parts of Bolton could be affected. Basically it is just a purely economic proposal and it could totally destroy the service in isolated, smaller rural areas.

"Private companies will be allowed to cherry pick the best routes and Royal Mail will be left with just the loss-making routes. They could go into Bolton and just provide a service there because they know they will make a profit - not in other areas.

"A lot of postal workers do not just simply deliver the mail, they also check on people who might not normally be seen or heard in isolated areas -- like the elderly. Some people depend on the postman and these are the people, along with many other, that could suffer because of these proposals.

"The postman or postwoman is probably now one of the only service-based people to go to nearly everybody's home -- and that is what could be lost in Bolton."

Consignia, the new name for Royal Mail, has a virtual monopoly on deliveries costing less than £1 and weighing up to 350g, but does face competition with parcel delivery firms and private couriers for mail over 350g.

Postcomm's proposals would open up almost a third of Consignia's business to competition from April, covering bulk mail of more than 4,000 items a day, which would cover bank statements and electricity bills and is worth around £1.5bn a day.

The second phase, from April 2004, would take in bulk mail of between 500 and 1,000 items, covering letters from schools and health authorities. And the final stage in opening up competition, from March 2006, would abolish all restrictions, enabling private companies to collect and deliver all mail.

Postcomm chairman Graham Corbett says increased competition would give Consignia the incentive it needs to improve its performance. The company is losing around £1m a day and is spending 28p to deliver each first-class, 27p, letter.

Consignia itself said it feared "death by a thousand cuts'' if Postcomm's proposals went through, with the universal service coming under threat.

But consumer group Postwatch says competition would lead to more choice for customers, encourage Consignia to get its act together, and provide more services.

Chairman Peter Carr says the regulator's proposals would open up the postal market. "Competition is the best way to protect customers' interests. The proposals allow time for Royal Mail to adapt to the changing trading conditions.

"The regulator should be applauded for destroying the myth that provision of the universal service is incompatible with a competitive market. In other markets, the elimination of monopolies has delivered lower prices and better service to customers. I am confident it will do the same in the postal market. Royal Mail has lurched from one crisis to the next. Doing nothing was not an option -- the regulator has devised a way forward that should safeguard the future of the universal service."

But Consignia chief executive John Roberts says the pace of increased competition could put the future of the whole network in doubt. ''The key issue is that nobody actually knows what the result of this kind of regulatory change is going to be, because nowhere else in the world has anybody tried it this way," he says.

"We are all working in the dark. Until we see what the market is going to do, we won't know. One of the things that does concern us is that the most profitable part of the network, the bulk mail, is the first to be opened up.

"My concern is that, if you get this wrong, there's no going back. The key thing for us is that we do want to compete, we are going to compete and we will fight very hard in these markets.''

And for rural areas, the consequences of getting it wrong could be very bleak indeed, according to Sir Edward Greenwell, President of the Country Land and Business Association.

"The first casualty of any postal sell-off will be the least profitable margins, rural delivery service," he says. This would be the 'straw that broke the camel's back' for many rural businesses struggling to keep afloat and it would be a bitter blow to communities on the edge of survival."

While city centres might see blue and green postboxes springing up beside their red cousins, in the countryside even the red ones might become harder to spot.