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http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/resources/images/3842380.jpg?display=1&htype=0&type=mc2THE Royal Mail has launched a last-ditch fight against plans to close its Southampton delivery office and replace it with homes.
Plans for 49 homes at the site in Shirley Road will go before planning chiefs next week - but the Royal Mail says it will fight any move to close the office and force it to relocate elsewhere in the city.
The delivery office at the site is contained in one building with an EasyGym, and owners Heywood and Partners have filed plans to knock down the buildings and replace them with the mixture of flats and houses.
A car sales showroom at the site would be rebuilt if the plans are given the green light at a meeting on Tuesday.
The plans would include a mixture of 27 houses and a number of three-storey townhouses and four-storey blocks of flats, one of which will contain the offices of the showroom.
The flat blocks would be built along the Shirley Road end of the development, along with the showroom, while the houses will be formed in terraces fronting Villier Road.
The firm's application says the development would be a "high quality, appropriately scaled development which will enhance the Shirley Road area".
http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/resources/images/3842532.jpg?type=article-fullBut it has not gone down well with the Royal Mail, which has a lease on the site until 2018 and is objecting to the plans.
A spokesman said: “We can confirm that as leaseholders of the building until 2018, we are objecting strongly to this planning application.
"If granted, it could lead to the forced closure of our delivery office at Shirley in its current location which could have major consequences for the continued postal service in this area.
"Should this application be approved by the council, we would be seeking relocation to a suitable site.
"In the meantime, we will continue to provide the universal service to our customers in Shirley and surrounding area.”
The spokesman stressed that if the office was closed the firm "did not envisage" any losses of the 156 members of staff working there, but would mean an appropriate site had to be found elsewhere in the city.
Five other objections have been made by residents, who are concerned about the impact on parking and say the proposals would be an "overdevelopment" of the site.
They were also concerned that some of the proposed new buildings would overshadow existing homes.
However the city council's planning officers have recommended that the proposals be approved by the council's planning panel at its meeting at the Civic Centre at 6pm on Tuesday.
Heywood and Partners were approached by the Daily Echo to discuss the plans but the firm declined to comment.
EasyGym declined to comment on the application.