Salter Fights to Save Reading Mail Centre |
Postal workers in the Reading area will be joining local MP, Martin Salter, in targeting Christmas shoppers in a campaign to stop the proposed transfer of the Reading Mail Centre to Swindon.
Special stickers have been produced by the Communication Workers Union (CWU) which the public are encouraged to place on their Christmas cards. The stickers say: “SAVE READING MAIL CENTRE” “DO NOT SEND MY MAIL VIA SWINDON” Figures published by the CWU show that the impact of the closure of the Reading and Gloucester mail centres and the transfer of operations to Swindon would add a staggering 2 million miles a year of extra road journeys. Reading West MP Martin Salter said: “It is as if the Royal Mail has either not read the recent Stern Report on the horrors of climate change or has decided to completely ignore its environmental responsibilities. "Figures produced by the CWU show the generation of an extra 1.4 million road miles a year resulting from letters posted in Reading having to travel to Swindon instead of to Caversham Road. "The same exercise for Gloucester adds another 600,000 miles. Quite apart from the impact on jobs which would be considerable there are now 2 million reasons why this mad-cap scheme should be scrapped.” Mr Salter will be taking a delegation from the Caversham Road Mail Centre to meet Post Office Minister, Jim Fiztpatrick MP, in the New Year to register the protests of postal staff and customers to the proposed move to Swindon. Mr Salter added: “Our “Not via Swindon” campaign will strike a chord with the public who simply won’t understand why a Christmas card posted in Tilehurst to a relative in Woodley ends up travelling 80 miles to Swindon and back” Terry Jackson, CWU South East Regional Secretary, has urged members of the public, and the business community, to send a message of good cheer to all the workers at the under threat Reading Mail Centre this Christmas. Mr Jackson said: “The Mail Centre is threatened with closure, with the loss of up to 500 jobs. Work is planned to move to Swindon within 18 months, subject to planning permission and approval of the business case within Royal Mail. "The CWU believes that quality of service will suffer, the environmental costs will be horrendous and that the move would cause misery to workers” Ian Warrick, the CWU Representative for Reading Mail Centre said: “We are expecting an extremely busy Christmas, where our members will be working flat out to collect, sort and deliver record amounts of mail. The morale of our members would be lifted enormously by a large display of public support for their plight”. |
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