FEW will cheer the news that the Royal Mail has recorded its first annual profit in four years. It has been achieved at the expense of a once-great service.

Consider how bosses dragged the business into the black. They slashed the workforce - 27,100 staff have left since the "renewal plan" was launched in September 2002.

They downgraded the service, closing post offices and scrapping second deliveries. Finally they put up prices - adding a penny on second class stamps and introducing a new surcharge on handling bulk mail.

Hey presto! Royal Mail is suddenly posting a profit of £220 million.

The dazzling business brains behind this turnaround are making great play of their decision to postpone their bonuses. Royal Mail chief executive Adam Crozier says he is waiving the "service element" of his bonus.

How magnanimous. In truth, he had no choice. Even the most obese fat cat would blanch at being rewarded for missing every one of 15 delivery targets. Managers blame industrial action for that dreadful record. That is a diversion.

Our readers have told us of an appalling and continuing decline in service. Post being regularly delivered to the wrong address. Mail arriving mid afternoon or later. First class letters and parcels arriving many days late. Other items disappearing altogether.

This sorry tale is crippling commerce and causing untold anger and heartache for householders.

Most frustrating of all, we cannot take our business elsewhere in protest. The Royal Mail is a monopoly. In most cases, there is no alternative.

Chairman Allan Leighton admitted today that the service "is not good enough". If he is to turn the fiasco around, he must invest today's profits in his frontline staff, who yearn to deliver a first class service again.

Updated: 11:13 Thursday, May 27, 2004