We’ve known for a while that the premises housing the Royal Mail sorting office off Hyde Lane is to be sold. It’s the freehold that is for sale and Royal Mail are leaseholders. The site is used exclusively by Royal Mail and their lease runs until 2028. Click here to view/download the sales brochure.
Many around here believe that it is to be closed. We have contacted Royal Mail and eventually in response to our questions a Royal Mail spokesperson said: “There are no current plans to close the delivery office.” This isn’t the first time that the future of the depot has been in question: apart from being closed during Covid, there have been a couple of occasions since the start of the ‘sell-off’ (in 2013) where Royal Mail has denied any plans for closure.
A bit of background, put this into context: just less than a year ago the entire Royal Mail business was taken over by the Czech based EP Group headed by billionaire Daniel Křetínský. Prior to that, since 2013 it had been gradually ‘offloaded’ by the Government, ultimately to International Distribution Services plc (IDS) in 2024 at which point it moved entirely into private ownership. So we don’t own it, any of it, any more. Technically it’s not a ‘service’ – to us or for us – the user. And any decision regarding structure of the business, or any part of the business will be a ‘company decision’ based on the needs, judgement and interests of the shareholders.
Will Marlborough’s sorting office still be here by the end of 2028 when the lease has expired? Will it still be here by the end of this year? Not questions that we can answer, other than say ‘hope so’ and we aren’t going to dissect that Royal Mail spokesperson response. Royal Mail delivery may not be perfect, even here but it is certainly much better than elsewhere. Too many genuine reports of places where letters don’t get delivered, appointments (some serious – health, legal etc.) get missed and all at a cost to us, the public. Many of whom still don’t have the access to or knowledge of the ‘online and digital world’ and rely on those bits of paper that get shoved through that hole in the front door, or stuck into that mailbox. Mail delivery is still ‘a service’, and important at that and if our letters all get delivered from Swindon, reliability and consistency may suffer.