Royal Mail meeting in Whitstable

Hello Herne Bay!

The people of Whitstable want to invite you to a Public Meeting here in Whitstable this Fri (1st Feb 2013) to hear your side of the story since you lost your delivery office to Canterbury.

Royal Mail say the move is successful? I think there are some porky pies being told there.

Come and tell us YOUR side of the story. We will take all your comments directly to Royal Mail as we are fighting hard here to save our own delivery office.

Here's a short film of last Saturday's protest here and some information beneath the clip of film. Please pass on this message! There will be a story in your local press this week.

Julie Wassmer

Another peaceful demonstration by the good people of Whitstable against Royal Mail's plans to close down the sorting office in Cromwell Road. If closed, this would force users to make a 16 mile round journey to Canterbury in order to collect their packages. Royal Mail call it 'Modernisation'.

'Mail chaos' after sorting office shut

Customers who miss delivery of their Christmas parcels are facing "chaos and confusion" thanks to the closure of the town's sorting office, campaigners claim. The office in Eddington Lane shut as part of plans by Royal Mail to modernise the service and postal workers are now based in the Canterbury office.

But protestors who are still battling to save the Whitstable delivery office say the move has been a disaster. Campaigner Julie Wassmer is urging people to write to Royal Mail bosses to keep up the pressure. She said:

"Following the Herne Bay delivery office move there is operational pandemonium in the Canterbury delivery office. Canterbury cannot cope with the mail from Herne Bay. We must fight this absurd proposal for which Royal Mail failed to give due consultation, so please write your views in an e-mail to Moya Greene, CEO of Royal Mail. Customers talk of chaos and confusion in the Canterbury office, of ringing up for hours or even days on end and not being able to get through. Even if they manage to speak to a real person in the office, it will be several days before redelivery can take place."

A petition opposing the move has attracted 5,000 signatures and a similar campaign in Nottingham successfully stopped a delivery office being moved. They collected 300 signatures.

Campaigners fear shutting the coastal centres will put up to 100 vehicles on to the road each working day as postal workers drive to and from Canterbury to pick up and deliver mail, causing congestion and environmental damage.

Whitstable staff were yesterday expected to ballot for strike action and have 28 days after the result to stage a walk out. This means the threatened postal strike will not happen before Christmas. Member of the Communication Workers Union, Chris Stone, said:

"I think a lot of us would have been uncomfortable putting our customers' Christmas mail at risk."

Royal Mail spokeswoman Sally Hopkins said postal workers had been consulted in 2010. The closure of the Whitstable delivery office and relocating work to Canterbury was the second phase of the changes. The first phase saw all sorting facilities moved under one roof to a super sorting office in Medway.

thisiskent 13th Dec 2012