Tag: Royal Mail

Post Office Ltd announces plans for East Essex and Suffolk

Post Office Ltd today opened a six week local public consultation on its Area Plan for East Essex and Suffolk. In line with the criteria and factors set by the Government in its response document, DTI The Post Office Network, Government Response to Public Consultation May 2007 (www.dti.gov.uk/consultations/page36024.html) the Area Plan proposes future provision of Post Office® services through a network of 340 branches across the area, resulting in the closure of 67 existing branches.

Under the proposals more than 99 pct of the area’s population will either see no change to their nearest branch, or will remain within one mile (by road distance) of an alternative branch.

In addition to the 340 branches which are proposed to remain in the East Essex and Suffolk areas, Post Office Ltd is proposing to establish 16 outreach services, which would use innovative ways to continue to provide Post Office® services – particularly in smaller communities – where the existing branch is proposed for closure.

Possible types of outreach service in the East Essex and Suffolk areas could include a mobile service visiting small communities at set times, a hosted service operated within third party premises for restricted hours each week, or a partner service within the premises of a local partner (such as a pub landlord).

The Government has already undertaken a 12 week national consultation before reaching a decision to reduce the UK wide network of Post Office branches by up to 2,500 from its current level of over 14000 while continuing to provide funding (subject to state aid EU clearance) to support a more sustainable network in the future. The proposals now published support the national accessibility criteria introduced by the Government.
Under the area plan proposals 92.7 pct of the area’s population will see no change in their nearest branch. A further 6.5 pct live less than one mile by road distance from the nearest alternative branch, with 2.7 pct within half a mile.

Royal Mail said that it was disappointed and extremely concerned that intensive talks with the Communications Workers Union have not resolved the issues between us and that they have called for further strike action next week.

Royal Mail Chief Executive Adam Crozier said: “Over the last 8 days, and 30 hours of talks over the weekend alone, we have worked with the TUC and their General Secretary, Brendan Barber, and have been totally committed to finding a solution within the amount we can afford.

Royal Mail will be writing to the CWU later this week clearly setting out our position, and we remain available for talks.

Royal Mail also confirmed that during the latest strike action by the CWU the drift back to work among their members continues with more than half the typical daily mailbag being processed as usual.

We would like to thank all of our people who are supporting us during the dispute and doing all they can to keep the postal service moving and deliver the mail to our customers. We apologize to customers for any delay and inconvenience caused by the CWU’s strike action.

Royal Mail is also pleased that we have concluded a deal in principle with Unite/CMA, which represents 12,000 of our managers, over pay, modernization and pension reform. The agreement with Unite, like the pay deals already agreed with our people in Parcelforce and with our national network of sub postmasters, was reached without recourse to any industrial action.