Welsh Mail to be sent via Manchester
Postal deliveries in North Wales could be hit by plans to switch weekend sorting to Manchester, it was claimed last night.
Royal Mail chiefs plan to move all weekend processing from Chester’s pounds 64m Sealand Road sorting office, which handles mail for North Wales, Wirral and parts of Cheshire, as part of a national drive by the company to save pounds 1.2bn a year by 2003.
Caernarfon MP Hywel Williams is pressing Royal Mail to drop the plans.
Mr Williams, who has met North Wales representatives from the Communications Workers’ Union (CWU) at Westminster, fears the plans will affect the quality of the postal service in North Wales and will lead to a loss of employment in the region.
He said: “It is totally unreasonable to send local mail from areas in North Wales to be sorted at a remote sorting office in Manchester and then sent back to addresses in the same areas. In some cases, this could mean a round trip of more than 300 miles. This is hardly a green approach to business development.” Mr Williams added: “Mail posted in Wales would be stamped with a Manchester postmark and would therefore be denied a distinctive Welsh identity.”
The plans, which were first put forward over 12 months ago, were defended by Royal Mail.
A spokesman said: “The conveyance of mail to Manchester will have minimal environmental implications as we already operate road services to and from Manchester throughout the week and will use these same connections.”
The CWU has vowed to fight the proposals. If the plans are implemented some of the union’s members could be hit hard in the pocket.
