Union's fears for deliveries

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Residents in Mildenhall could face delays of up to two hours on their postal deliveries should plans to close a regional mail centre be approved.

According to the Communications Workers Union, both delivery and collection services in the town could be severely disrupted should Royal Mail’s proposal to shut the Ipswich sorting office go-ahead.

If plans are passed, it would mean that instead of post just travelling to Ipswich to be sorted and then delivered, it would travel to a collection hub at Ipswich before being transferred for sorting at Chelmsford and returned to Ipswich for delivery.

“What this proposed change means is that collection times in the morning would be earlier and delivery times anything up to two hours later,” said Nick Loube, area processing representative for the Communications Workers Union (CWU), speaking yesterday.

“This would have a big impact on business in the town who rely on the postal system.”

“Everybody we have spoken to so far has been 100 per cent behind us to try and stop this from happening. We could not have asked for a better response,” he added.

On Thursday, Mildenhall Parish Council pledged its support to stop the changes to the postal system being made after listening to a presentation by Mr Loube and David Scott, branch secretary of the CWU. It was unanimously agreed by councillors to write a letter to Royal Mail objecting to the proposals, which would also see 250 jobs go at the Ipswich centre, and to Mildenhall MP Matthew Hancock, to get him on side.

“It makes sense to look after the people in Mildenhall as at the end of the day that is what we are here for,” said Cllr John Barker, speaking at the meeting.

Residents can sign an online petition to save the Ipswich sorting office by visiting http://www.ipetitions/petition/save-ips ... ing-office" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;.

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Letter: Royal Mail response

Further to the story Union’s Fears For Deliveries (Journal, June 06), I wanted to clarify a few points. Royal Mail is undertaking a review of our mail processing operations in Ipswich.

It is being undertaken against a backdrop of the huge growth in electronic communications, which has generated an increase in parcel volumes at the same time as a decline in traditional letters.

It is vital that we address this and modernise our business to ensure we have world class facilities that provide the most efficient and effective network for transporting, processing and delivering the mail six days a week across the UK.

We are consulting our unions as part of this review. This consultation is ongoing so we cannot speculate on its outcome.

What we can say is that when we undertake operational changes across our business, we do all we can to minimise any impact on our customers.

We are committed to maintaining a first class mail collection and delivery service to all our customers in the Ipswich area.

Ricky McAulay

Processing and collection director, Royal Mail

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Royal Mail response: blah de blah de blah.