Wotton sorting office campaigners lobby Downing Street

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CAMPAIGNERS trying to save a sorting office from closure have registered a petition with Downing Street and support if gathering pace.

The SOSO action committee, that is trying to save Wotton sorting office from being merged with an office in Cam, has continued its campaign by registering an e-petition on the 10 Downing Street website.

Local printers Clarendon Press has also produced thousands of leaflets, free of charge, urging people to write letters of objection to the Minister for Postal Affairs, Pat McFadden MP.

Campaigners handed out the leaflets last week in Wotton town centre.

"Many people had already written letters of objection and almost all the others enthusiastically took the leaflets and intended to write too," said county councillor John Cordwell.

In December Royal Mail announced its intention to close the sorting office in Wotton and merge it with the office in Cam to save money.

The sorting office not only serves Wotton but a 45 square-mile area including Wickwar, Charfield, Tortworth, Tresham, Alderly and Hillesley.

At a meeting of the SOSO committee, members heard that changes to the delivery rounds would mean that more people who currently get their post before 9am would not get it until the afternoon.

Other services that are usually undertaken by postmen, for example delivering newspapers to pensioners in remote locations, will stop.

They also heard that the Cam sorting office was not designed to take extra staff and vehicles, and a particular problem will be parking.

Cllr Dennis Andrewartha, district and parish councillor for Cam, said at a parish council meeting: "In Cam the sorting office uses about 50 per cent bicycles and 50 per cent cars, but for Wotton it is nearly all vehicles.

"So there will be lots more vans travelling in and out of Cam when the service moves. But I don’t think there is anything we can do as a council other than recognise the decision."

To sign the Downing Street petition log on to http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/wotton-sort-off/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;.