A member of the Federation of Small Businesses is arguing a change to Royal Mail collection times that are affecting their business.

SAM (UK) Ltd, based in Edison Road, St Ives Business Park, has been hit with an alteration in the post office’s service that has bought forward to time of collection in the park.

The collection time for the box, in Nuffield Road, which serves the whole estate, has been changed from 5.30 to 4.30 which has had a major impact on the business that receives orders from its clients between 3 and 5pm, that has resulted in the business not having sufficient time to process the bulk of sample requests.

Managing director Ken Tester said: “I fail to understand why it is suddenly necessary to shorten the collection time.

“In any event, why anyone at Royal mail thinks that a 4.30 collection time for a busy industrial estate is acceptable escapes me and obviously demonstrates a mind-set that has nothing to do with customer service.”

The change in time means that staff from the company must now back a four mile trip into St Ives or pay £944 per year for a daily collection which is not guaranteed to be picked up by 5.30pm.

SAM (UK) Ltd sells a wide range of self-adhesive paper to the printing industry.

Malcolm Lyons, chair of the Huntington Branch of FSB said: “Postal services are vital for small businesses. Small businesses are both senders and receivers of letters and parcels. Postal services play an important role in facilitating business, including communication with customers and delivery of supplies. Therefore they need convenient access to value-for-money postal services.”

The Royal Mail were unavailable for comment.