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We are at this point trying to organise a public meeting to be held on Saturday 29th October at 12.00 with the venue to be confirmed shortly,
VILLAGERS have won their battle to save a vital sorting office in Hook. Royal Mail announced in April that the delivery office in Osborn Way was set to close, affecting customers in the RG27 (Hook) and RG29 (Odiham) postcode areas. Residents were horrified as it would mean having to travel to Basingstoke to pick up their undelivered mail. Hook Parish Council kick-started a campaign to oppose the cost-cutting move and enlisted the help of Hook MP James Arbuthnot and Hart district councillors Brian Burchfield, Jonathan Glen and Sean Haffey. Village leaders urged residents to voice their concerns on the Royal Mail website. The campaign was so successful that Royal Mail has now decided to keep the sorting office open. The news has delighted villagers including Cllr Burchfield, who was elected to represent Hook ward in the May local elections. He said: “During my election campaign one of the issues I heard on the doorstep was that the closure would be a burden to people who regularly use the sorting office to pick up packages. “Those people who rely on the sorting office and would have found it difficult to collect packages from Basingstoke ranged from small businesses who regularly rely on this facility to elderly citizens of Hook who could not travel into Basingstoke due to a lack of transport. "We started a campaign shortly after I won the election in May, having posted an article in the Hook Focus magazine detailing what Royal Mail’s decision was and how to lodge a complaint on its website. “We also passed the information to Hook Parish Council who in turn passed it to local schools who informed the parents.” Cllr Burchfield said he received nearly 100 emails about the issue and helped guide those writing to him in how to lodge a complaint. “Obviously, the voice of the people has been heard and on Friday July 15 I was informed by Royal Mail, through James Arbuthnot’s office, that it has rescinded its decision on the matter.” Announcing the closure in April, Royal Mail said it was down to a fall in the amount of mail sent due to the growth of electronic communications. It added the move would provide improved working conditions, secure employment and be a more cost-effective option. However, a Royal Mail spokesman said this week: “Having carried out further assessments of our proposal, and having given the matter careful consideration, we have taken the decision that Hook delivery office will remain where it is and will not be relocating to Basingstoke. “Mail for the RG27 and RG29 postcode areas will continue to be delivered from Hook. Collection arrangements for customers who need to pick up mail we have previously tried to deliver will not be affected.”
Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland Labour MP, Tom Blenkinsop, the local staff at Guisborough Postal Delivery Centre, the Communication Workers Union and the Guisborough Town Football Club, are uniting this Saturday (the 27th August 2011) to hold a Guisborough wide protest against the plans of the Royal Mail to close their local delivery centre, and to move it to a remote location at Redcar. On Saturday coming the team, the MP and the Postal Workers will be uniting to hold a rally in the town, starting with a protest march from the delivery office on Morgan Drive in Guisborough at 12.30 pm, ending at the Football Ground on the King George the Fifth Field prior to Guisborough Town's home game against Consett FC, a game which has been dedicated to the campaign. Tom said "The threat to close the delivery office has galvanised the town in opposition. Petitions have gone to every local business and every local shop, and people are queuing up to sign them. Local people and local businesses rightly fear a worse service and an inability to easily pick up uncollected parcels and post. This is all part of the privatisation of the Royal Mail, a process designed to make it more attractive to outside competitors to move in to make an easy killing out of a former public service."Guisborough Labour Councillor Joe Keenan said “We have been warning for a year that the impending sell-off of the Royal Mail will damage the quality of service it can provide. This potential closure highlights what will happen should the postal services not remain in public ownership. Cost cutting and profit will be put before communities.” Peter Sansum, the area's Communication Workers Union representative, said "Our members fear that an enforced move to another location is simply a back door way of making the job more unattractive and they also fear a worsening of conditions and a move that will make the service far worse for Royal Mail's local customers. Our members have served the public of Guisborough well for many years. They just want to get on with their job, a job they love."Chris Hardy, the Guisborough Town Manager, said "We at Guisborough Town fc see ourselves as part of the community and will lend ourselves to support causes such as this one, as we realise the importance of this service to the local community of Guisborough. Guisborough Town fc and all concerned fully support this call for the delivery office and our local mail service to remain apart of the Guisborough way of life, this is why we are dedicating our game against Consett Sat 27th Aug, to the campaign to show our support." ENDS
Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland Labour MP, Tom Blenkinsop, hit out at the breaking news that the Royal Mail will be closing their Guisborough Delivery Office on the town’s Morgan Drive, and transferring sorting operations to Redcar.
Tom said: “This will, I am convinced, mean a worse deal for both Guisborough residents and businesses and for the loyal postmen and women working from that office.”
“For local people and local traders, there will be fears of later deliveries, and the fears of a total loss of delivery during icy winter weather. There will also be a loss of a local facility to pick up parcels which may have come when a householder has not been in to take delivery, with, I guess, the only option for those affected residents being to either travel to Redcar to retrieve their delivery, or to face a long wait for another delivery.”
“The people who, of course, will have to bear the brunt of this closure will be the local postmen and women, who have been loyally serving the town for many years. We are told that there will be no compulsory redundancies, but that doesn’t mean there wont be job losses. From seeing what has been happening around the rest of the country, this cannot be ruled out.”
“This closure is simply confirmation of what I and other Labour MP’s warned about over past months when this coalition government was pushing through the privatisation of the Royal Mail and the Post Office. We warned then that this would herald a slimmed down mail service for the country, a massive loss of jobs and a worse service for householders and businesses that rely on postal deliveries and collections. Sad to say, we are being proved right, and in this case, it is the community of Guisborough who will be the loser.”
PLANS to close Guisborough’s postal delivery office have been defended by Royal Mail but condemned by the town’s MP.
The Morgan Drive office will be relocated to Malmo Court, on Redcar’s Kirkleatham Business Park, next year.
Royal Mail says switching the Guisborough operation, which delivers mail to customers in the TS14 postcode area, will provide “improved working conditions, secure employment and a more cost effective operation”.
There will be no compulsory redundancies and Royal Mail says it will reimburse people for extra mileage incurred as a result of the move.
Royal Mail’s North-east collections and delivery director Bob Storey said: “We are working with our people on the change and will be discussing the implications to them as individuals.”
But Labour MP for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland Tom Blenkinsop says it will mean “a worse deal for Guisborough residents and businesses and for the loyal postmen and women working from that office”.
He said: “For local people and local traders, there will be fears of later deliveries, and the fears of a total loss of delivery during icy winter weather.
“There will also be a loss of a local facility to pick up parcels. The only option for those affected residents being to either travel to Redcar to retrieve their delivery, or to face a long wait for another delivery.
“The people who will have to bear the brunt of this closure will be the local postmen and women, who have been loyally serving the town for many years.
“We are told there will be no compulsory redundancies, but that doesn’t mean there won’t be job losses.
“This closure is simply confirmation of what I and other Labour MPs warned about over past months when this coalition government was pushing through the privatisation of the Royal Mail and the Post Office.”
Royal Mail says that faced with “declining mail volumes and increasingly tough trading conditions” - there are 16 million fewer letters posted daily than five years ago - it “constantly reviews the operational efficiency and commercial practicality of all its units”. It says it is “looking into the options” for how TS14 customers can collect undelivered mail in the future. |
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