Question mark over future of post depot as vans move to Asda

[TrueBlueTerrier]

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THE future of Dunfermline’s Woodmill Street postal depot remains up in the air as it prepares to move its vans to parking facilities at Asda St Leonards.

Communication Workers Union (CWU) rep Garry Haldane admitted the depot was being “squeezed” and that Royal Mail would have to “make a decision at some point” on moving or extending the facility.

In May, the Press told you about Fife Council’s plans to close off Dunfermline rail station car park to goods vehicles to cope with high demand.

With several bays used by post vans due to lack of available space at the Woodmill Street depot, the move has now signed a three-month rolling contract to use parking space at Asda St Leonards.

Mr Haldane confirmed, “It’s official – we have to be out of the railway station car park by 17th November and move to Asda on a three-month rolling contract.
“We’ll be there for three months – after February we could be asked to vacate and find somewhere else, because Asda want to put in a click and collect service. So the most we’ll have is six months.”

The move will have a knock-on effect, and there is also the question of where the vans will go once the contract is up.

Mr Haldane said, “It’s going to take longer to get to and from the car park.

“You have to park, get to the office, get the van up to load it and at the end of the day unload it and take it back to Asda – because we’ve got a small car park we’ve got to do it in rotas.

“There’s also concern about possible vandalism. Where we are now it’s quite visible, but out of the way down there. The only other place that was identified is the car park on Leys Park Road.

“It was the closest we could find. There’s nowhere else we could park, but that would be a logistical nightmare because when you need to get the vans you’ll be doing it at peak traffic times.”

Short-term fix

However, the issue of parking could help bring the question of the depot’s future to a head.

Mr Haldane explained, “We’ve been crying out for a new building for years and in a way, this has helped our case for a new office.

“It’s a short-term fix – in the long term, we don’t know what’s going to happen. A new place hasn’t been discussed yet.

“Another plan is getting a new collection office put in and knocking down some of the buildings for car-parking but we would still have issues with car-parking.
“And if we moved, there’d be the question of where we’d move to – if we moved to Halbeath, do we bring in Kelty, Cowdenbeath, Lochgelly and Kinross? The more housing developments that come on board, the more mail we’ll get. We’ll need a bigger collection office, more vans, more parking space and more employees – but that’s good from CWU’s point of view.

“People are not worrying about it yet. We’re just concentrating on getting work done to the best of our ability.

“But at some point Royal Mail will have to make a decision.”

Mr Haldane also assured that the parking move to Asda would not affect productivity or quality of service.

He said, “On the upside, it’s increased our part-timers by a small number because of the time to move back and forth from Asda.

“I’ll be able to get their hours up and it’s good news for the CWU. It’s just a bit more difficult to manage but it won’t affect service. I would like to thank the public for their support and patience.”

[POSTMAN]

That was a party political broadcast by The CWU party.

[Captain Scarlet]

Rota system for van's going out on delivery and other van's coming in...................total nightmare and is there any time made for all the distance to get the van and then leave the van at the end of the day? Don't think so