Cambridge: Sorting Office Closure

6 September 2012, 10:47 | Updated: 6 September 2012, 10:57

Royal Mail is proposing to close its sorting office in Cambridge, where 200 people work.

The company says the proposal has been made as it's dealing with less mail than it used to, mainly due to people sending more Emails instead of letters and doing more of their business, such as banking, online.

Royal Mail is proposing to transfer the bulk of the work to its facilities in Peterborough, with the remainder being dealt with in Chelmsford.

The organisation is currently consulting with staff and trade unions, and talks are due to continue before a final decision is made in the autumn.

Royal Mail says it is 'too early to say what the impact of the proposal will be' on staff at the Cambridge sorting office, as 'this depends in the final outcome of the consultation with unions and people'.

Part of a statement from Royal Mail reads: "Our intention is to make changes without compulsory redundancies. 

By asking people to demonstrate reasonable flexibility, we expect to be able to find roles for everyone who wants to continue to work for Royal Mail."

Ricky McAulay, Processing and Collections Director for Royal Mail East said: "Change is absolutely essential to meet customers' expectations of a world class postal service, ensure we operate efficiently and provide a great quality of service in a smaller and radically changing market. 

Any change to our mail centre in Cambridge will, unfortunately, impact on some colleagues. 

Our agreements with the CWU set out an agreed approach to managing these changes and we will be working very closely with the CWU and Unite CMA to support our people during what will, inevitably, be a period of uncertainty. 

This review is part of the ongoing modernisation and investment in our business. 

This is vital in order to put Royal Mail on a sound, secure and sustainable footing for the future."