A POSTMISTRESS is looking forward to licking her last stamp

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A BATTLE has begun to save Worcester's mail centre after Royal Mail revealed plans to review its services across the Midlands.

The Wainwright Road centre currently employs 188 members of staff who could be offered jobs elsewhere in the company or face redundancy if the company decides to close it.

Royal Mail estimates the amount of mail being sent in the region to half by 2014 compared to 2006, and the amount of post being handled by the company to shrink by a quarter because of the increase in electronic communication such as email.

This, coupled with the extra competition faced by the company, has led it to put its sorting offices in Birmingham, Wolverhampton Leicester, Northampton, Derby, Nottingham and the Worcester office on Wainwright Road under review.

The six month review will assess how many offices the region needs, with closures and mergers a possible outcome.

Royal Mail spokesperson Heulyn Gwyn Davies said: "Within the shrinking postal market, we are losing share to rival operators which now carry more than one in three letters and more than half of all business mail in the UK. While these letters are still delivered by Royal Mail’s postmen and women, much of the collection and regional processing activity undertaken by our large processing sites is now done by competitors and the amount done by Royal Mail has dramatically reduced."

Staff have held discussions with the Communication Workers Union (CWU) regarding the potential closure, and Worcester and Hereford branch secretary Brendon Allen remains optimistic.

"Obviously people are getting concerned and worried about the future of their jobs. However we are in the middle of a consultation period which has no fixed outcome. No decision has been made regarding any of the seven offices. If everything is done properly we would like to think we have as much chance of staying open as anyone else."

Worcester MP Robin Walker vowed to do all he could to keep the sorting office open.

"What you have to remember is that this office serves Worcestershire and Herefordshire as well, which is a big area to cover. A decision on closure will obviously be a commercial decision but we must show that we are very keen to keep it open, and keep the jobs there."