Todmorden Town's mail delivery office under threat

[TrueBlueTerrier]

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Published Date: 17 January 2009

By Colin Drury

TODMORDEN'S Royal Mail delivery office could shut within the next three months, the Courier has learned.
Royal Mail is negotiating with union officials about the possibility of moving all services to Rochdale as a stream-lining step which will see Oldham Mail Centre – the regional distribution point – close in two months.

It would mean almost certain job cuts among the more than 20 post workers currently based at Todmorden.

And the move could mean a delay in post arriving in the town by up to two hours. Customers, who can currently collect parcels from the delivery office, may be forced to go further afield.

Julie Stansfield, Tod-morden Town Council mayor, said: "It's devastating news for the town.

"If this closure goes ahead we are not only looking at a second class service, we are talking about a severe economic blow to the town."

If the move goes ahead, mail for Todmorden will be sorted in Manchester and would almost certainly be left as part of a one drop journey to Rochdale Delivery Office.

Des Carney, chairman of the Communication Workers Union's Oldham branch, said: "There are two real options on the table at the moment.

"One, mail would be sorted at Rochdale then taken to Todmorden office, and delivered from there.

"Two, mail is sorted in Rochdale then delivered straight to the streets from there.

"And frankly, from a business point of view, there seems little point in the first option because all you're doing is adding an unnecessary step.

"So, what's happening is that this so called stream-lining is resulting in good workers being put out for no real reason, while customers get a far worse service that's delayed by up to two hours."

Royal Mail said all changes would be designed to give customers the best service.

A spokesman said: "We are currently assessing the impact the transfer of processing work from Oldham to Manchester Mail Centre will have on our network in the OL postcode area, including Todmorden.

"Any changes we may make to our operation will be aimed at ensuring our customers in the Todmorden area continue to receive the same high quality of service."

He would not speculate on where people in the town may have to go to collect parcels insisting there were no plans to close the office at Rise Lane.

[ar26]

"Royal Mail said all changes would be designed to give customers the best service."
Did Royal Mail read the Hooper report, he says we have to take more notice of the end user , the receiver of mail not just the sender, looks like the people here don't want thier local office closed and the drop in service this is expected to cause. If we are part privatised it won't just be offices with 20 staff they'll want to close, they'll want super sized delivery offices with hundreds and hundreds of postie's commuting large distances to thier rounds.

[dvbuk55]

I'm not sure what the optimum number of employees to customers per delivery office is but I'm sure Royal Mail will have a matrix in mind, however I would imagine that 20 is certainly far below the minimum number they have in mind and I think 50 would be nearer the mark.

[DGP1]

I'm not sure what the optimum number of employees to customers per delivery office is but I'm sure Royal Mail will have a matrix in mind, however I would imagine that 20 is certainly far below the minimum number they have in mind and I think 50 would be nearer the mark.

Maybe they should look at the number of managers per member of staff, 1 per 50 is a good number but I would guess that most offices have around 1 per 15/20.

[smarterdarter]

I belive Tod were piloting the van-share idea, looks to have been a succsess

[dvbuk55]

I'm not sure what the optimum number of employees to customers per delivery office is but I'm sure Royal Mail will have a matrix in mind, however I would imagine that 20 is certainly far below the minimum number they have in mind and I think 50 would be nearer the mark.

Maybe they should look at the number of managers per member of staff, 1 per 50 is a good number but I would guess that most offices have around 1 per 15/20.

I don't know what the average is in a delivery office but ours is about 1/40 - not including the DOM - who these days spends so much time at meetings and conference calls, hardly has time to be dealing with the day to day running of a delivery office - that and finding ways to save even more hours/money. Having said that I wouldn't like to be a manager these days - I'm just too nice a guy I suppose

[DGP1]

I'm not sure what the optimum number of employees to customers per delivery office is but I'm sure Royal Mail will have a matrix in mind, however I would imagine that 20 is certainly far below the minimum number they have in mind and I think 50 would be nearer the mark.

Maybe they should look at the number of managers per member of staff, 1 per 50 is a good number but I would guess that most offices have around 1 per 15/20.

I don't know what the average is in a delivery office but ours is about 1/40 - not including the DOM - who these days spends so much time at meetings and conference calls, hardly has time to be dealing with the day to day running of a delivery office - that and finding ways to save even more hours/money. Having said that I wouldn't like to be a manager these days - I'm just too nice a guy I suppose

Maybe it's just my office. Of course my manager is a complete numpty