Amanda Gillies, for The Detail

Fewer deliveries every week, a reduced number of postal outlets, and no longer having mail deliveries to letterboxes at front gates are just some of the proposed changes for New Zealand Post.

This would mean posties would eventually stop delivering mail to individual letterboxes and instead leave mail in cluster or community boxes.

The Postal Workers Union is not impressed.

"We are already hearing that people are very unhappy to find out - even though they don't get much mail - they are pretty concerned about where they are going to get it," union president John Maynard told The Detail.

"All new subdivisions, the developers are going to have to put in nests of boxes, so people won't get delivery to their houses. I already have photos of these nests of post-boxes getting broken into. And people often talk about insecurity.

"I have also spoken to Grey Power people, who are very unhappy. It's quite a cultural thing - we want a letter box at our front gate and that's where we expect mail to get delivered to."

The union said the consultation process, launched by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, was selective, misleading, complicated, and inaccessible to many of those most affected by the proposed changes.

It wanted the proposal to be suspended, rewritten and then extended to at least three months "to better provide for a consultation process with a more well-informed and accessible participation by residents".

But MBIE communications infrastructure and trade general manager James Hartley told The Detail he was happy with the process in place.

"We think that the consultation is clear, fair and accessible to the public. It's always a challenge in any consultation to get to every part of the community... and [we] will be relying on key community groups like rural women, Postal Workers Union and others to help represent community views.

"And six weeks is an adequate time period, and we have no plans to change that."

MBIE is consulting on five proposed changes:

• Reducing minimum delivery frequency in urban areas to two days a week, and in rural areas to three days per week.
• Reducing the minimum number of postal outlets from 880 to 500, and possibly down to 400 over time.
• Allowing NZ Post to extend its network by delivering to cluster and community boxes for new addresses.
• Allowing NZ Post to convert existing delivery points into communal points at a rate of up to 5 percent per year.
• Reducing the time until the next review to three years, from five.

"The government wants to know what people think about the proposed changes and how it could impact them if introduced," Hartley said.

"I really encourage people to give feedback."

The final day for feedback is 10 December.

The Detail requested an interview with NZ Post but was declined.

This story was originally published by RNZ