Office closure is sorted

THE closure of Oldham’s mail sorting office starts this month and will be completed by the end of June, according to the Communication Workers’ Union.

Mail from Oldham will in future be transferred to Manchester’s Oldham Road Royal Mail centre for sorting and processing.

Oldham’s Hamilton Street depot will then become a delivery-only office.

Around 70 jobs have gone out of about 140 sorting staff, mostly by voluntary redundancy, according to Des Carney, the union’s branch chairman for Oldham and Rochdale.

Mr Carney said Oldham will become a hub where collected mail is consolidated before being taken to Manchester.

There it will be sorted into walks, and taken back to Oldham, but postmen and women will have to make the final adjustments before setting out.

He added: “The Royal Mail is saying it is not changing the service but we think it will delay delivery times.

“We will have to wait and see.”

There are 10 sorting offices under threat nationally. As well as Oldham, the Bolton and Stockport sorting offices will have work moved to Preston and Manchester.

Last year Mr Carney predicted the knock-on effect in Oldham could mean sub-postal delivery offices in Dobcross, Greenfield and Uppermill closing with work transferred to space in the Oldham depot.

Last Friday angry customers got together with postmen and women at a public meeting in Uppermill, after a leaked document said some work done at delivery offices in Saddleworth’s post offices could move to Oldham.

Royal Mail insists that it has no plans to close the offices, but a Saddleworth petition is being raised objecting to any changes in services.

A Royal Mail spokesman said: “We plan to have completed the transfer of mail processing from Oldham to Manchester by early July.”