Plea over axed Shrewsbury Royal Mail sorting office

Royal Mail figures have revealed that targets for delivering first and second class mail on time to addresses in the Shrewsbury and Telford postcode areas were being exceeded.

But there were warnings standards could slip if the county's only sorting office, which is based in Shrewsbury and employs 240 workers, closes in 2014.

Darren Jones, Communication Workers Union branch secretary for Shropshire and Mid Wales, said: "You will get a worse quality of service, in a lot of cases with later mail deliveries."

Mr Jones also warned that plans to have SY postcode mail sorted in Chester and TF postcode mail dealt with in Wolverhampton would lead to a less efficient service in Shropshire.

Royal Mail's figures show that between April and September this year, 95.3 per cent of first class mail was delivered on time the day after posting in Telford, and 94.4 per cent in Shrewsbury. It was 92.6 per cent nationally. The target set by the organisation is 93 per cent.

Delivery director Wayne Jay said: "We are extremely pleased that we are delivering a high quality service for our customers. It's down to our local postmen and women, out on their routes six days a week, who are determined to deliver the best possible service."

Mr Jones said the statistics were a prime example of why the Shrewsbury sorting office should not be closed.

He added he expected deliveries to particularly suffer in Telford, as the Wolverhampton office is already struggling with increased workload caused by also dealing with mail for Stoke-on-Trent. He said the CWU was meeting Royal Mail bosses next month to ask them to halt the plans.

Royal Mail has said the closure plans is in response to a 24.3 per cent drop in postal volume over the past five years.

By Chris Burn