Stourport-on-Severn faces more cuts to postal services just 14 months after the town lost one of its local post offices. But this time, it is the local sorting office that faces the axe. Local staff are worried that the local sorting and delivery office could close as soon as April, with services moving to the sorting office in Kidderminster's Crossley Retail Park. The fears come after a manager was put in place to run a feasibility study and cost analysis.
The Stourport office is an important local resource for the town. An average of 174 parcels are collected by local residents every day, whilst 48 local businesses and residents collect their mail each morning. Finally there are 18 PO boxes. From April onwards, local residents and businesses will have to travel into Kidderminster to collect their mail and parcels, increasing local congestion, and putting greater strain on businesses already suffering under the recession.
28 people work from the sorting office and for the members of staff who are based in the office itself, the future looks bleak. Meanwhile the post men and women who are based there will have to operate from Kidderminster.
Mark Garnier, Wyre Forest's Conservative Parliamentary Spokesman said: "This is bad news for Stourport for three reasons. Firstly it puts a greater strain on local small businesses, which rely on collecting their mail in the morning, at a time when we should be giving them more help not less. Secondly, it increases the burden on our already congested roads, forcing post office staff and customers into their cars to get to Kidderminster to do a job they currently walk to. Finally, it is yet another resource being taken away from Stourport. We should be bringing more resources to the town; not taking them away. We should be making the town more attractive to attract businesses and employment; not running it down.
"Local Conservatives are fully behind the campaign to save this important local resource."