SMALL businesses have rejected the suggestion that the Royal Mail should lose its letter service monopoly.

This threat, which has been made during the long-running postal workers' dispute, was the subject of a questionnaire to members of the Manchester and North Cheshire region of the Federation of Small Businesses.

Asked if the monopoly should be ended, 78 per cent said "no" and 22 per cent said "yes".

The majority of members (73 per cent to 22 per cent) were also against the introduction of some form of multi-level postage rate, determined by factors such as volume and delivery distances.

Five per cent did not have a view on this.

When members were asked how satisfied they were with the Royal Mail service 38 per cent were very satisfied, 39 per cent were fairly satisfied, 14 per cent were not very satisfied and eight per cent were not at all satisfied.

Dr Bernard Juby, the FSB's Trade and Industry spokesman, said: "Whilst the recent spate of postal strikes have been a nuisance to our members there seems to be a consensus of opinion favouring the monopoly through fear of ending up with a patchy service from any future privatisation."

Mr Brian Prime, the FSB Policy Unit chairman, added: "Breaking up the Royal Mail monopoly is one privatisation too far and the strength of feeling seems to be against the disruption that a break-up would cause as well as worry about a more expensive and undefined service that may replace the current postal system."

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