Liverpool post mark to die out

[TrueBlueTerrier]

Liverpool post mark to die out when city’s sorting office closes http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpoo ... -27116544/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

THE LIVERPOOL postmark may disappear within two months after campaigns to save it failed.

Once the city’s last remaining sorting office closes mail will no longer be franked in the city.

Instead, most letters and parcels posted in Merseyside will be collected and stamped ‘Warrington’, as the city’s post will initially be sent there.

Royal Mail today confirmed to the ECHO it has no plans to save the mark and rebuffed suggestions it could segregate mail from the city so it could be marked as coming from Merseyside.

They dismissed any nostalgia about the postmark saying it was merely an “operational tool” to show where a letter was processed.

But the move will see an end to more than 300 years of history – and the death of the country’s oldest postmark outside London.

Only businesses that frank their own mail will be able to put the city’s name on their letters and parcels.

Royal Mail was criticised today for not understanding how important the postmark is to the city’s identity.

After October the vast majority of the city’s post will be sent to Warrington as Liverpool’s Copperas Hill sorting office will be closed.

Royal Mail has been winding down the site for a number of weeks.

The Communication Workers Union (CWU), which represents staff there, said two shifts have already transferred to the Warrington depot, taking around 200 staff with them.

Only the larger night shift remains at the site.

CWU’s Liverpool branch secretary Mark Walsh said: “We asked them from the start to try to have the Liverpool postmark retained.

“We would prefer to have a Liverpool postmark. It’s the second oldest in the country.

“I don’t think Royal Mail think it’s a big issue. The MPs and the council, when they met with them, it was one of the concerns that they put as well.”

Mr Walsh said his union was still in talks about transferring the night shift workers out of Copperas Hill.

He said the office could still be used at peak times such as Christmas, when the postmark could make a brief return.

But a Royal Mail spokesman said: “The postmark is an operational tool which identifies the mail centre where an item was processed not the area in which it was posted.

“A number of staff from Liverpool Mail Centre have already transferred to our new Warrington Mail Centre with others expected to join them as the work moves on a phased basis. We aim to complete the transfer of processing work by October.”

In August 1997, the ECHO won its Don’t Stamp it Out campaign to save Copperas Hill and the postmark when the Warrington move was first mooted.

But a shake-up of Royal Mail’s North West operation was again announced in 2008 and pleas to save a city sorting office failed.

The firm was adamant Warrington was its preferred centre because it uses the latest technology and should be more efficient at sorting mail.

Liverpool Riverside MP Louise Ellman, who campaigned for Copperas Hill to remain open, told the ECHO: “Liverpool’s a major city. We should not be losing our sorting office and we shouldn’t have our loss reinforced by having our name being removed from the post.

“It’s absurd. It’s totally without any understanding about identity and people’s feelings.

“It shows that they are misjudging public sentiment.”

Mrs Ellman and city leaders tried to convince Royal Mail to keep a sorting office inside the city boundaries, suggesting alternative sites in Speke and North Liverpool but without success.

Mrs Ellman added: “I was very disappointed when the Post Office became so unmovable. I think this is rubbing salt into the wounds and riding roughshod over people’s feelings. They don’t understand Liverpool identity.”

Liverpool council leader Cllr Joe Anderson said: “We expressed our real concerns about not keeping Copperas Hill and we were told it was a loss maker and it was not fit for purpose and it needed new investment and they weren’t prepared to make that.

“It’s a real disappointment that we will lose the Liverpool postmark and we will lose some jobs there.

“We can only make those appeals. But if they fall on deaf ears there’s very little we can do.

“Liverpool is a big city with an important reputation, not just in the North West region, but nationally and internationally. That stamp with Liverpool on it was a little bit special and to lose that is losing a little bit of history.”

[maisymoo04]

[heapsy]

Already happened with Stockport. Although Liverpool is a bigger area, and I am wondering just how ALL the mail will be processed at Warrington.

[maisymoo04]

av a couple of mates who have gone from liverpool mail centre to warrington it is a new mail centre been built next to the old one which houses crewe manchester etc it is also were the north west distibution centre is which took on most of the mail centre closures dont no if my information is correct just what i have been told soz if its wrong

[Lounge Lizard]

Doesn't anyone in Liverpool realise that 100 years ago thousands of villages as well as all towns and cities postmaked their own outgoing mail and that this has steadily reduced over the decades to less than 70 mail centres now and fewer still in the future ?
So Liverpool hasn't been singled out for this and much more moaning about it might get Boris suggesting they're wallowing in their victim status again.

[maisymoo04]

no one is moanin lizard and as it says liverpool is a big city with a fantastic reputation not only in uk but also nationaly

[RelocatedRick]

What's happening at Warrington the so-called "Flagship", "World Class" mailcentre is this: they are diverting to Preston, Manchester etc daily, and still failing. The remainder of Liverpool mail, and the WN area collections are still to go in there, how I don't know it looks full to the brim (and failing) now!

Talking of rubbing salt into wounds. I received a letter this morning 23rd, from the NW review team. It was dated the 10th, and was informing me that Crewe would close on the 16th! When I arrived back at Crewe this evening the handful of remaining staff were sorting inward mail diverted back from Warrington, short closure!

[maisymoo04]

i have heard this aswell mate dont think they can be arsed now after everyone movin there haha