Richard Graham defends sorting office decision

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Gloucester MP Richard Graham this week backed the decision to close Gloucester’s Eastern Avenue sorting office, pointing out that there will be no compulsory redundancies amount the work force of 371.

He said: “The announcement by Royal Mail today comes after nine months of discussions of different options and consultations.

“Although clearly a very sad moment for staff and their families, I know that this is advance notice of the closure next July, and that R Mail will be doing all they can meanwhile to keep staff, many in different roles, and train those who decide to take generous voluntary retirement and pursue other opportunities. I'm pleased that the intention is for no compulsory redundancies.

“Royal Mail assures me that mail collection and delivery times will not be affected, so customers should be reassured, although it will be up to the company to deliver on that pledge.

“Meanwhile Royal Mail has already started discussions with staff individually to review different options - including trial periods in eg Parcel Force, Bristol and Gloucester South.

“I understand their intention is to keep as many of the 371 Eastern Avenue based workers as possible. That includes the circa 80 drivers of mail vans, additional jobs created in the Gloucester North and South and Stroud offices: and other roles available in their Bristol and Swindon centres.

“The key to the numbers of staff staying with R Mail will be their flexibility on eg travel. This may be difficult for some (like part time employees who are working mothers. However the timing of the closure in 2013 and the recruitment of staff, including part time, for the new Morrisons going up in the Railway Triangle should mean instant opportunities just up the road.

“I've seen Royal Mail and the local CWU branch several times during the last few months and hope they continue to work closely to ensure the best future for individual staff.

“Overall for Gloucester there will be some jobs lost and that only emphasises the importance of seeing new investment and new jobs, and growth in our existing businesses.

“There is quite a lot of evidence of both (obviously especially coming up in the neighbouring R Triangle and the huge future growth in nuclear energy, but also as companies like Ageas continues to expand) and I will continue to work on attracting more.”

The transfer of the work to Bristol is expected to begin in the middle of 2013 and be completed by early 2014. Once Gloucester mail centre is closed, the site will be sold.

Royal Mail will also create two mail processing units at the existing Gloucester North and Stroud delivery offices. These sites will process mail for delivery to customers in parts of the GL2 – 6, GL10 and GL19 postcode areas.

A company spokesman said: “Royal Mail needs to respond to the huge growth in electronic communications and the resulting decline in overall mail volumes.

“In the UK, our latest financial results (published in June 2012) indicate that nationally letter volumes fell by 6 per cent compared to the previous year. We are now delivering 58 million items a day compared to 84 million items a day six years ago.

“In Gloucester, mail volumes of items posted to addresses in the region from other parts of the country have fallen over 18 per cent during the last three years. Mail volumes of items posted to addresses outside the region have fallen by 27 per cent in the same period.

“Within this shrinking postal market, rival postal operators now carry more than one in three letters and more than half of all business mail in the UK.

“The regulatory framework has facilitated the rapid growth of competition, severely diluting our revenues.

“Our revenue has been declining as the number of addresses to which we deliver - nearly 29 million - is steadily increasing.

“Royal Mail has been stressing the need for a very different regulatory approach and our new regulator, Ofcom, has accepted that the regulatory landscape must fundamentally change.

“There are around 372 staff currently working at Gloucester mail centre, which includes a Royal Mail fleet services workshop.

“Royal Mail has been working hard to identify alternative roles for these people and we anticipate that all collection and network duties will remain, although they will be located on different sites.

“We will reimburse our staff for any extra mileage incurred by changes to their place of work.

“We are confident that anyone wishing to continue working for Royal Mail will have the opportunity to do so if they are reasonably flexible. Royal Mail’s aim is to minimise job reductions and it remains our intention to make changes without compulsory redundancies.”