POSTMEN and women in Bridgwater are being told to ditch their bicycles for trolleys and vans.

Royal Mail says the proposal, part of its £2 billion national modernisation scheme, is to help some of its town staff save their backs and reduce accidents.

Dave Chapple, of the Communication Workers Union, said: "The union accepts vans are more suitable in some areas - Bridgwater is one of them. For most bike rounds, mail is carried on a front pannier so most of the time it isn't on your shoulder - so we don't accept the shoulder argument.

"Then there's the environmental argument about vans and congestion in towns. Postmen have used bikes for 100 years and some are happy to still use them. We will fight to retain as many bikes in Bridgwater as we can."

A Royal Mail spokesman said it was not a straightforward switch from bikes to vans.

He said: "Changes will result in a number of other benefits as we deliver fewer letters but more packets and parcels than we did in the past.

"The switch to vans and trolleys enables us to take the weight off staff's backs and can reduce cycling accidents involving our staff. We can eliminate the need to send out older, more polluting vans to replenish postmen and women by sending out all the mail, including parcels and special delivery, in one go."