Tag: Royal Mail

Campaign to save post offices hots up

Posted by | Aug 21, 2002 | |

A third of all post offices in Birmingham could close as part of a national cost-cutting drive, it was claimed yesterday.

According to the the Liberal Democrats, Birmingham will be one of the hardest hit areas as the Post Office struggles to curb mounting losses.

Eleven of the 32 branches in Ladywood face closure, with seven under threat in Small Heath and Sparkbrook and five heading for closure in Hall Green, they claimed.

In other areas of the city they have already begun a campaign to save up to 16 Birmingham subpost offices from closure with petition forms delivered to 30,000 homes.

Lib Dems, backed by their Euro MP Liz Lynne, are circulating the Hands Off Our Post petition to households in Perry Barr, Great Barr and Kingstanding.

They fear that plans to close 3,500 of Britain’s 8,000 urban post offices will leave many, particularly the elderly and less well-off, without easy access to vital services.

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Threatened post strike called off

Posted by | Aug 20, 2002 | |

A postal strike which would have thrown Bridgwater’s mail into chaos this week was called off at the eleventh hour on Wednesday.

Last minute talks between bosses from the Communication Workers’ Union and Royal Mail finally resolved an overtime payment dispute which threatened to wreak havoc at the Friarn Street sorting office.

Staff at the office agreed in a ballot at 6am on Wednesday to drop the strike threat, which was due to begin on Wednesday night.

If the action had gone ahead, mail deliveries in the Bridgwater area would have been disrupted for three days until Friday night, with managers from Royal Mail taking on some of the work.

The row had been over whether Bridgwater staff should get overtime payments for covering sickness, which Royal Mail had intended to scrap but is now reconsidering.

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'Post and a pinta' scheme attacked

Posted by | Aug 19, 2002 | |

A scheme for milkmen and women to deliver mail in Liverpool is “worrying and unnecessary”, a union has warned.
Express Dairies started to deliver parcels on Monday after winning a 12-month licence.
The licence limits the number of deliveries over the year to 4.6m, but there are plans to extend it to Manchester and Nottingham.
The Postal Services Commission (Postcomm) says the scheme is not designed to take work away from postal workers.
However, a spokesman for the Communication Workers’ Union (CWU) said: “The people who are best placed to deliver mail in this country are the postmen and women.
“We see this development as a worrying and unnecessary development.”
However, the spokesman acknowledged that with Consignia – owners of the Post Office and Royal Mail – facing major financial problems, the granting of licences such as the one in Liverpool was inevitable.

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Post Office staff caught fixing tests on first-class deliveries

Posted by | Aug 16, 2002 | |

Royal Mail staff at a London sorting office are said to have been ordered to search bags of mail by hand to find “test” letters and ensure they arrive at their destination on time.
It is not clear whether post chiefs know delivery figures could be being manipulated, but if the Royal Mail were shown to be unaware of such a problem, it would raise serious questions over managers’ ability to do their jobs.
It could also raise concerns about the credibility of a Post Office report, due out this month, which deliveries’
will claim deliveries in London have improved dramatically. Today, postal regulator PostComm and consumer watchdog PostWatch said they would look into the allegations of a fiddle.
The Royal Mail employs a company called Research International to send out test letters from firms and postboxes across Britain to see how long they take to get to their destination. Local depots are not supposed to know when and where these letters are sent.
The research shows how close the Post Office is to meeting its targets, set by PostComm, to ensure that 92.5 per cent of letters arrive on time.
But the Standard has been told that at one London sorting office, staff are being ordered to find these letters and speed them on their way.

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3,000 UK urban post offices facing axe

Posted by | Aug 15, 2002 | |

A THIRD of Britain’s urban post offices face being shut down, it was revealed yesterday.
Royal Mail chiefs want to axe 3,000 branches to save money -including 54 in Birmingham, 34 in Leeds, 28 in Liverpool, 24 in Manchester and 23 in Newcastle.
Sixty per cent of towns and cities will lose at least five POs.
The main branches and sub offices are casualties of the debt-ridden Royal Mail’s efforts to protect rural offices.
The cuts from a total of 17,500 POs follow losses of Pounds 100million and the closure of 547 branches last year.
A Pounds 200million Government compensation fund will help axed offices.

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