250 jobs to go in £70m Kent Royal Mail reorganisation

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A major reorganisation of the postal service in Kent is coming to a head following an investment of more than £70 million.

Some 250 people will be left out of work, but the union said it was regrettable but unavoidable.

A new Royal Mail flagship hub is set to open soon in Medway. The mail centre replaces out-of-date sites in Dartford, Canterbury, Tonbridge and Maidstone, and was built partly because the company nationally is now handling 18 million fewer daily letters than it was just fives years ago.

As well as this merger, the Royal Mail is changing some of its smaller delivery offices.

Planning permission has been granted for a new £1.5m delivery office in Parkwood, Maidstone, and building work starts within weeks with an opening date planned for October. Once operational, the current Maidstone sites will be sold.

It will house two compact sequence sorting machines which can organise mail at a rate of 40,000 items an hour into a postie’s delivery route.

The current mail centres at Canterbury, Dartford and Tonbridge will be retained to become delivery hubs for those areas. Canterbury will also take over from sites in Whitstable and Herne Bay, plus Tonbridge will take over the work of Tunbridge Wells.

Royal Mail said the Communication Workers Union recognised in the Business Transformation 2010 and Beyond Agreement that the company needs to review the number of mail centres it operates.

There is growing competition from electronic media and other carriers.

David Banbury, the Kent spokesman for the Communications Workers Union said: “There are job losses – people are taking voluntary redundancy.

“There is an agreement there would be no compulsory redundancies. It affects about 250 people because there not enough jobs for those people.

“It is regrettable, but unfortunately when you reorganise like this and introduce modern machinery.”

Royal Mail’s South East England regional operations director, Tom Willis, said: “We are delighted to get the go-ahead for our new delivery office in Maidstone. This new office is part of the £70m we are investing in our operations in Kent to ensure we have a network fit for the future.

“The changes we are making to our operations in Kent are vital to put Royal Mail on a secure and sustainable footing. As part of our investment and modernisation programme across the UK, we are investing in new technology and equipment and upgraded operational facilities.”

And Steve Nelson, Royal Mail’s delivery office manager at Maidstone, said: “The new office will provide a better working environment and enable us to continue to deliver a high level of service. We are also investing in a range of new delivery equipment better suited to the mix of mail we are now delivering to our customers, which includes more parcels and packets.

“Customers can be assured that Royal Mail will make every effort to minimise any disruption to customers when this relocation goes ahead.”