PEOPLE living in villages on the Forest side of the Wye are losing cash because they have Newport postcodes instead of Gloucestershire ones.
"A change from a NP to a GL postcode would save each household and business in the parish of Tidenham a considerable sum of money," says Tutshill man John Powell, who has been trying unsuccessfully to get Royal Mail to change things.
"I have carried out some research with insurance companies and I am amazed to find out that by having an NP postcode I am financially penalised," he said.
"For example, my household contents premium would be some £21 cheaper if my post code were GL instead of NP."
He says the same applies to motor insurance and other financial products, but when he asked the Royal Mail management centre in Bournemouth if the code could be changed they said it would have "an adverse effect on the Chepstow sorting office staff".
"I cannot see how a change of code for those living in Gloucestershire but with Chepstow in their addresses would have any adverse effect whatsoever," said Mr Powell.
"The mail is sorted by one of Royal Mail's latest computer-controlled systems. A precedent has been established recently when the code for Chepstow was changed from NP6 to NP16.
"By changing our code to GL it may enhance and ease the task of sorting at Chepstow. The sorting machine could be programmed easily to direct Tidenham's GL coded mail to Chepstow for final sorting and delivery.
"Royal Mail has recently advised us that their sorting machines will be able to deal with both our new NP16 and old NP6 codes together for the next six months. I see no reason why the machine could not cope with a GL code as well for those of us living in Gloucestershire."
Mr Powell, a local councillor in one of the largest parishes in Britain, says he understands MP Diana Organ has been alerted to the problem but has had the same reaction from Royal Mail.