A doctor feels he is being put “into the wilderness” by cuts to the postal service.

Dr David Leigh, Gibbons Close, is concerned that the collection times for the Sandridge post-box has been moved.

On Friday, May 26 Dr Leigh walked past the box at 2.50pm and read a sticker saying that next collection would be on Saturday.

The collection time had been moved from 6.30pm to 4pm six months ago in order for the company to become more efficient.

Dr Leigh said: “I visited Royal Mail’s website where I discovered that the 9am – 4pm collection window that sticker told us now applied to Sandridge was applicable to postboxes in “Deep rural” locations.

“Royal Mail appears to have moved Sandridge into a wilderness.  Every year we pay more for our post but the service gets worse.”

The Sandridge resident now believes that the previous collection may also have been the first collection of the day, and that the post-box may only be emptied once a day.

Earlier this month a small sticker advising last pick-up is at 4pm and first collection would not be before 9am.

On the Royal Mail website, it states pick-ups from towns and pick-ups are between 9-6.30pm, and for the rest of the UK between 9-5.30pm.

The 9-4.30pm collections are for “Deep Rural” areas, even though Sandridge is less than three miles away from the city centre.