BUSINESS leaders fear small firms could be put at risk by a Royal Mail decision to switch to a single day delivery.

Second deliveries in all areas covered by an ME postcode were axed on June 2 by postal chiefs seeking to save costs and improve efficiency.

It is part of a UK-wide initiative by Royal Mail to combine first and second deliveries into a single day delivery and is now being phased in across Kent.

Second day deliveries, the company claims, account for only four per cent of the national daily post, but around 20 per cent of costs.

Thousands of homes and small firms without separate business deliveries in place to handle large amounts of mail are affected by the changes.

Letters sent out by the Royal Mail prior to the switch claims customers will still receive all their post for the day by around lunchtime. Those in rural areas may have to wait until 3pm.

The time people get their post will depend on where their homes or businesses are located on new longer postal rounds, which have increased from two to 3.5 hours.

Customers wanting to get their mail earlier can, by prior arrangement, collect their post in person from their nearest collection depot under a new Mail Collect Scheme.

Ronald White, vice chairman of the Maidstone branch of the Federation of Small Businesses said that while he understood the arguments behind the changes there were still concerns.

He said: "The dropping of second deliveries makes economic sense but with these savings in resources we would expect business post to be delivered by 9am.

"For many businesses there is a need to action documents received in the morning. If deadlines are missed it could result in them being penalised."

Maidstone Town Centre manager, Bill Moss, added: "There are certain businesses which rely on the post for customer orders, letters, cheque payments etc. and any delay will cause at least an inconvenience and at worst put businesses at risk."

A Royal Mail spokeswoman said: "As with any change we cannot guarantee it is not going to affect our customers to begin with.

"There maybe some teething problems as the new system and routes bed in. Some of our customers, however, are not going to notice any change at all.

"This would include businesses who receive a large volume of mail and get their deliveries by van as opposed to the normal postal round."