Postal union CWU in appeal to PM Brown to save Coperas Hill

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LIVERPOOL postal union leader Mark Walsh has requested a face-to-face meeting with Prime Minister Gordon Brown to argue the case for a city mail centre.

The Communication Workers’ Union (CWU) branch secretary submitted his plea after the PM’s comment during the first visit of a British Cabinet to Liverpool early last month that he would not forsake the city, unlike Margaret Thatcher’s Tory government during the last recession in the early 1990s.

Mr Walsh said he has written requesting a meeting to follow up on the PM’s comments to specifically argue the case for Liverpool to retain its own sorting centre.

Royal Mail announced a north west-wide shake-up last year that included plans to close the city’s main Copperas Hill sorting centre next year and move operations to a Warrington site, affecting 600 Liverpool sorting jobs.

Mr Walsh said: “I have written to Gordon Brown after he said he would not forsake Liverpool. I have asked for a meeting, but his PA said he will respond in writing. I have requested a meeting with him specifically on Copperas Hill.”

The CWU has worked with Liverpool council and local MPs to persuade Royal Mail to build a new mail centre in Speke or Knowsley, but bosses rejected the proposals on cost grounds.

However, Mr Walsh said he believes there is still time to work with Royal Mail at board level to reverse the plan: “We are still pushing for Liverpool to have its own mail centre.”

He is meeting Merseyside MPs at the House of Commons this afternoon to rally support for a Liverpool centre during a national day of protest against government plans to sell a stake in Royal Mail to the private sector.

About 2,000 postal workers, including Merseyside staff, were taking part in a rally against the government’s privatisation proposals in Westminster today.