The leader of the postal workers' union has called for a "period of calm" over the coming six six weeks to give it and the Royal Mail time to discuss how the service should be modernised.

As members of the Communication Workers' Union (CWU) are set to balloted on strike action, the union's deputy general secretary, Dave Ward, told the programme: "If we don't take a stand now and stand up for postal workers, the Royal Mail will destroy postal services forever."

Royal Mail's managing director Mark Higson said: "We are simply asking people to use new machinery, work in a flexible way. We are adjusting hours where we have less work to do because of falling letter volumes."