AFTER more than ten years as a postman, Roger Annies was feeling weighed down by the increasing amounts of junk mail he was being told to deliver.

Fed up with householders’ complaints about the avalanche of takeaway menus, credit-card offers, leisurewear catalogues and other unsolicited adverts dropping through their letterboxes, he took matters into his own hands.

Knowing that a simple “No junk mail” notice might not be enough to ward off the unwanted items, Mr Annies, 48, from Barry, South Wales, began delivering his own leaflets, informing residents how they could evade the unaddressed letters and flyers officially known as “door-to-door items”.

As a result he has now been suspended from his job by the Royal Mail Group, for whom junk mail is a lucrative source of income.

Last year the group delivered 3.3 billion door-to-door items — 12.1 per cent more than the previous year. There had been a self-imposed limit of three items per household each week, but Royal Mail last week lifted the cap, leaving holidaymakers to face bigger piles of junk mail when they return home.

Mr Annies has been accused of misconduct for notifying residents of an opt-out service that the Post Office provides on request. He could face being dismissed.

His leaflet read: “As you will have certainly already noticed, your postman is not only delivering your mail; he/she also has to deliver some (anonymous) advertising material called door-to-door items. For the near future, Royal Mail plans to increase your advertising mail. This will mean a lot more unwanted post in your letterbox.

“You may be interested in reducing your unwanted advertising mail, and reduce paper usage in order to help save the environment. If you complete the slip below and send it to the Royal Mail delivery office, you should not get any of the above mentioned unwanted advertising.”

Within days his local sorting office received at least 70 completed forms demanding an end to junk mail. A fellow postman said that Mr Annies’s leaflet came in response to householders complaining about the level of unwanted mail. The postman, who did not wish to be named, said: “I can’t see what he’s done wrong. He was just providing a service to the customers. They filled in a form saying they don’t want it any more.”

The direct-marketing industry has nearly doubled in size in the past five years. Door-to-door mail accounts for a quarter of all unsolicited mail. Banks and financial institutions are the biggest spenders in an industry estimated to be worth £17 billion last year.

Mr Annies, a father of two, refused to comment on his suspension while it is under investigation.

Anthony Vaughan, a resident on his round, said: “No one wants this junk mail building up. It’s a nuisance. I’m astonished that no one was told before about opting out.

“He should definitely not lose his job for being a good postman who thinks about the people he’s delivering to first and foremost.”

A Royal Mail spokesman said: “A postman employed at Barry delivery office has been suspended on full pay pending further investigations following an alleged misconduct issue. We would not comment further on an individual case. If we did not deliver unaddressed promotional items then someone else would. The door-to-door service is very important for the prosperity of many businesses and charities across the UK.

“Customers can chose to opt out of Royal Mail’s door-to-door service by contacting the Post Office. A note on the door saying ‘no junk mail’ or an unauthorised letter is not part of that process.”

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