5 post collection offices - in Leigh, Shoebury, Rochford, Great Wakering and Canewdon to close

8:20am Friday 28th September 2012 in Echo News By Emma Thomas

5 post collection offices axed in fresh cutbacks 5 post collection offices axed in fresh cutbacks

ROYAL Mail has announced the closure of five delivery offices which could leave some people with a 15-mile round trip to collect parcels.

Despite previous assurances delivery offices in Leigh , Shoebury , Rochford , Great Wakering and Canewdon would remain open, the company yesterday said they would be moved to Short Street, Southend, next year.

The changes, aimed at saving money, are still being discussed and bosses insist there are no proposals to close Post Office branches. John Hunt, 49, the Essex branch secretary of the Communications’ Workers’ Union, said it would be fighting to keep the same service for residents, as well as protecting members.

He said: “It is always difficult when you are dealing with office closures. A lot of our postmen and women have worked in some of these offices for up to 40 years. “It can be quite unsettling. We don’t know the official effect on our customers yet.”

If the changes go ahead, they will come into effect in Spring 2013. Royal Mail said a decline in the number of letters sent had led to the changes. There would be no compulsory redundancies. All the staff would be moved to Southend and given travel expenses.

Steve Molloy, Royal Mail’s delivery director for the Southend area, said: “We expect to be able to share more information shortly. Such changes are, however, vital to put Royal Mail on a sound, secure and sustainable footing for the future.

“Our service to customers will continue to be a top priority during any changes, if they go ahead. Customers can be reassured we would do all we could to minimise disruption to them and ensure we maintain the high level of service they expect and deserve from Royal Mail.”

When the Echo revealed in March Short Street office, in Southend, was to stop sorting mail, assurances were given there were no plans to close local delivery offices such as Leigh and Shoebury. Short Street stopped sorting mail in March, but it remained a pick-up point and delivery base. Post is now sorted in Chelmsford, before being driven to delivery offices across Southend.

Royal Mail said it made every effort to deliver mail to customers first time. If they were not at home, a card was left and customers could arrange a redelivery free of charge.

Comments(16)

whataday says...
7:30pm Thu 27 Sep 12

Not surprised Post Office having to make closures - they're putting themselves out of business with high cost of postage for letters and parcels. I went to post a parcel the other day and thought they thought I was going with it when they told me the cost.

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Brunning999 says...
7:33pm Thu 27 Sep 12

Post that arrives lunch time, postman that change on a daily basis and post that is delivered to wrong locations.

Compare that to UPS or other private deliveries and it makes you think..

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Mummy60 says...
7:43pm Thu 27 Sep 12

Big shame - so we lose more of our community, having a postman who delivers your mail, knows much about the area they deliver to, keeps an eye out knows if something is strange or not right and reports it, is something that cannot be replaced once it is gone!

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jolllyboy says...
7:56pm Thu 27 Sep 12

Leigh again - not content with taking away our buses they now take away our post office.
How are the elderly going to get to Short Street if they are not very mobile. leigh council should fight this to the end. It will affect leigh shopping too.
I dislike going to southend at any time.
Royal mail should drop the Royal now and stop hiring vans.
Deliveries are pathetic not arriving sometimes till 5pm, never the same postman, they drop off post which is supposed to be signed for without getting signatures, post goes missing. We just wont send anything any more.I think they want us to do everything on line like Car Tax etc.What i would say though is that the delivery office at Leigh never were the politest of people anyway.

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Truth Will Prevail says...
9:08pm Thu 27 Sep 12

Our esteemed representatives tell us privatisation is good. Ha! Never had so many letters and parcels wrongly delivered to us and our stuff gone astray. A curse on all politicians.

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EssexBoy1956 says...
10:12pm Thu 27 Sep 12

Does anyone still write letters?

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j-w says...
8:53am Fri 28 Sep 12

Essex boy this is more about parcels. Parcel delivery is that game where the postie writes the card out, gets out of the van, puts the card through the letterbox, rings the bell and has to make it back to the van before you!

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Dan_ says...
8:54am Fri 28 Sep 12

Seriously, with eBay, Amazon, and all of the other web based companies how on earth are they failing to make money?

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APR says...
8:54am Fri 28 Sep 12

This is about parcel delivery, not general mail. Letters etc....


____ _____ _______ ______ ______

I'd better not say more, as apparently one or two people don't like my comments, and are running to the Echo to complain.

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rochfordfa says...
9:56am Fri 28 Sep 12

I hope they keep Short Street open late into the evening as the local collection point is open early enough to maybe pop in to while on the way to work but having to make a trip to Short Street will probably need to be done after work and any commuters from London would not be able to get there till after 630pm at the earliest.

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perini says...
12:19pm Fri 28 Sep 12

Can't say about the other offices but Leigh is always busy. Yet again an erosion of services - lets get shot of Royal Mail and bring in a company that can run the mail properly.

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andy:) says...
3:35pm Fri 28 Sep 12

Great idea..make sending and receiving packages even more diificult, is the Post Office run by morons ?

There are now umpteen companies who provide a far better service, for example, Ive just sold a bike on Ebay, its going to be collected on Monday delivered to North East, signed for, email/sms confirmation for £16.

I doubt the PO would even deliver something that size or it would cost me £50+.

Why dont we just ditch Royal Mail or maybe just let them deliver letters only.

Andy

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Old Boy says...
6:21pm Fri 28 Sep 12

They put the price up then they say we have got to save money. Where's the logic in that.

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MemeMe30 says...
12:55pm Sat 29 Sep 12

Brunning999 wrote:
Post that arrives lunch time, postman that change on a daily basis and post that is delivered to wrong locations.

Compare that to UPS or other private deliveries and it makes you think..
Mine hasn't been turning up till 7pm,

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MemeMe30 says...
12:58pm Sat 29 Sep 12

Brunning999 wrote:
Post that arrives lunch time, postman that change on a daily basis and post that is delivered to wrong locations.

Compare that to UPS or other private deliveries and it makes you think..
I live in Basildon. Mine has been turning up at 7pm, as well as being posted through wrong number!
The postman totally denies it of course.

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whataday says...
5:35pm Sat 29 Sep 12

Andy could you give the name of the delivery service you used as I would like to have that handy. As I said earlier in the thread I thought I was going to go with my parcel for the amount of money they charged

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