A MULTI-MILLION-POUND court battle appears to have been avoided after Guernsey Post Ltd agreed to a compromise on its monopoly.

Under the new agreement with the regulator, GPL would hold on to its sole right to handle letters costing up to £1.35 to post. But it has also accepted that the reserved area for the parcels market should be scrapped and opened up to competition.

The news came just a month after GPL’s chairman and then chief executive had attacked the Office of Utility Regulation’s ‘difficult, costly and disproportionate’ level of regulation.

Today, under new chief executive Boley Smillie (pictured), the utility welcomed ‘extremely constructive’ recent discussions with the OUR leading to the new deal, which should end the current appeal process to the Royal Court over retaining its monopoly.

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