A tough new line is being pursued by the General Post Office against post box customers who do not pay their annual bill by the end of January.

Non-payers will find the lock on their box changed, their uncollected mail returned to sender, and the post box rented out to another customer.

Nearly half of all the 8,400 post box renters on the Island have yet to make their annual payment.

The GPO has set a deadline of the end of this month for the payment of the outstanding fees ? otherwise it will take action.

In the past action against late-payers has been threatened but often resulted in some degree of leeway to accommodate those who have been late with their payments. This year a tougher line will be adhered to.

To ensure customers get the message, reminders were delivered to all post boxes at the beginning of December.

And large notices have been put on display in all post offices around the Island.

Postmaster General George Outerbridge said no one will be able to argue that they did not realise action would be taken.

His message is unequivocal: ?In the past we have not been as strict over receiving late payments, but this year we are being so.?

Allowing extra time for late payers creates more work and expense for the GPO, which is another reason why it wants to avoid having to chase up customers beyond the deadline. It also has a waiting list of customers seeking to rent out a post box. As things stand 46 percent of all post box customers have yet to pay up.

The annual cost of a GPO post box ranges from $65 to $260 a month depending on size.

Mr. Outerbridge acknowledged that some post box customers only check their boxes once a month, but said the invoices were delivered on December 9, giving nearly two full months for people to pay up.

Post office staff have also been instructed to call customers who have not yet paid.

On the subject of Christmas mail, Mr. Outerbridge said deliveries on the Island appeared to have gone well. ?I did not receive a single complaint about mail being delivered late over the Christmas period,? he said.

However, one Somerset resident this week told he had just received a Christmas card post-dated in the UK from December 9 while a Smith?s resident complained a letter sent from Europe on December 12 only showed up on January 9.

Mr. Outerbridge said delays often originated overseas. In the run-up to Christmas the GPO sent a representative to the mail sorting section at New York?s JFK Airport to ensure that mail bags destined for Bermuda were not shunted into a corner while parcels and freight took priority.

Such ?stockpiling? of mail has occurred in the past, leading to inevitable delays it getting it sorted and delivered when it reaches the Island. A representative on the ground watching out for the Bermuda-bound mail had meant it was processed at the airport in a timely and continuous manner.