Clapton Pond<br>Neighbourhood Action Group : Royal Mail letter 7 6 3

I write, first of all, to thank you and Mr Mason for attending CPNAG’s 3rd June Community Forum, to discuss the proposed closure of the Brooke Road Sorting Office.

Residents were interested in what you had to say, and the discussion was very detailed. After you left, the meeting asked that I write to summarise the main points raised.

We note that the decision to close the office had not yet been taken, and that you were still considering this option. You also stated that the impact on local people was an important part of your consideration, which we were pleased to hear of course.

You described the difficulties with the site: its restricted nature (and listed status), the highway and access problems of the site, as well as the building’s generally poor condition. You also told us that Royal Mail was not the freeholder of the property. Your investigations over some time have not turned up any other suitable sites, and the preferred emerging option was to move the service to Leyton.

We noted your assurances that there had been full staff consultation – this was in answer to Councillor Rathbone summarising points made to him by an employee who was also a trade unionist. We are concerned about local jobs, quite naturally, and we note Royal Mail’s policy commitment to supporting staff moves in such circumstances. You indicated there would be no job losses as a result of any closure. 31 people are employed in the office, of which 19 come from the Clapton area. You also indicated that Royal Mail has a framework for compensating employees who suffer increased journey times to work in such circumstances, and that these conditions are subject to collective trade union bargaining.
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You are at present monitoring use of the Sorting Office as part of your decision making process; you indicated that initial statistics show some 200 people using the office on a Saturday morning (7:00 to 12:00) and some 60-70 each week day, in other words approximately 500 people per week. To put this in perspective you observed that there were some 16,000 delivery addresses in E5.

As I understand it, there would be three options for people affected by the closure. They can request delivery to a nominated alternative address, or to a nominated post office (for which the service charge is fifty pence), or they can request a redelivery. You also indicated that the Royal Mail tries to accommodate people who have difficulty answering the door (disabled people, for example), and if this difficulty is reported on the telephone, then the delivery person would wait longer at the door.

You confirmed that the move would not affect our postal delivery service in any way, and might even lead to some short-term improvements because the equipment at Leyton was more efficient. On questioning, you accepted that there would over time be a trend towards later delivery, and that the move to Leyton could lead to a later delivery time.

The people at the meeting raised the following objections:

- That the travel time to the Leyton office, along the Leabridge Road, was a key issue for people. We agreed it is far more than the 15 minutes on average it takes your vans to travel the route. As a point of information, I drove with my daughter this morning to Leyton Leisure Lagoon, near the sorting office, and it took 25 minutes in a private car. On Saturdays the bus lanes are not enforced, and I reckon it is slower going. When you add waiting times, this makes the round trip (plus waiting time at the office) a good deal more than one hour. The general point we would like to make is this: in considering the effect on local people you need to take into account real passenger journey times (and fares) on public transport. Maybe there is better public transport to another sorting office.

- There was some concern about the way news of your emerging plans has been handled, and that there needed to be proper consultation, run by yourselves.

- There was a question I don’t believe you answered about when in the process you would formally consult, and whether that consultation would really be meaningful, or merely a ‘for information’ exercise.

- The point was made several times that, given the number of people who use the sorting office each week, that some special collection point could be created in the locality – there are plenty of vacant shops!
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I hope I have fairly summarised the main points raised on the evening. If I have left anything out, then please do get back in touch and I will make an amendment. We tend to post these notes on our website, and we can easily put the record straight!

As a closing point, we noted your reference to the Consumer Council for postal services: Postwatch at 28-30 Grosvenor Gardens, LONDON SW1W 0TT, 020 7259 1185. I read out this information at the end of our meeting.

I am copying this letter to our local councillor and GLA representative, who has taken an interest in the matter. Again many thanks to you and your colleague Mr Mason for taking the time to talk to us.

Yours sincerely,

Dr Chris Miele
Chair, Clapton Pond Neighbourhood Action Group

Cc Cllr Ian Rathbone, LB Hackney
Cllr Meg Hillier, Greater London Authorityhg

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This Page was last update: Thursday, July 3, 2003 at 1:50:00 PM
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