Area Branch

Providing Support for CWU Members in the Coventry Area Branch

Last Updated Friday, 20 June 2008

Welcome to the CWU Coventry Area Branch Website

Coventry Needs a Mail Centre

Royal Mail wants to close Coventry Mail Centre in favour of building a new Mail Centre south of Northampton to process Coventry & Warwickshire’s Mail.

We estimate that such a move by Royal Mail will displace approximately 500 of its employees that currently work in Coventry Mail Centre.

To date the company has no definitive plans as to what will happen to those 500 displaced individuals.  Initially the company stated that there would be redeployment opportunities for those individuals at the new proposed mail centre and within Coventry & Warwickshire.  However to date we are unable to see where these so called redeployment opportunities lie.

Additionally as a consequence of the closure we anticipate there being a drastic reduction in the quality of service currently enjoyed by the residents of Coventry & Warwickshire with regards to their postal service as the processing of Coventry & Warwickshire’s Mail in another county will inevitably lead to earlier collection times and later delivery times.

 

According to the “West Midlands Regional Spatial Strategy (WMRSS) Phase Two Revision”, which has been drawn up by local authorities in the West Midlands working through the Regional Assembly, proposals are afoot to plan for a minimum of 365,000 new homes in the West Midlands to be concentrated in 4 Major Urban Areas of the West Midlands.  Coventry is listed as one of those Major Urban Areas. 

However despite the projected growth in residential and business addresses in the CV postcode Royal Mail are choosing to focus their mail processing operation for Coventry & Warwickshire in Northamptonshire.

Not only would the closure of Coventry Mail Centre be bad for Royal Mail employees based at Coventry Mail Centre, communities in Coventry & Warwickshire and the economic and social growth of Coventry & Warwickshire but by moving the mail processing work currently conducted in Coventry Mail Centre to Northamptonshire there will also be a negative impact on the local environment.

We estimate that the processing of Coventry & Warwickshire’s Mail in Northamptonshire will result in an increase of approximately 8,000 miles per day, for its fleet of operational vehicles ferrying mail to and from Delivery Offices in the Coventry & Warwickshire area.

In their Code of Business Standards, Concern for Environment, Royal Mail states that their policy is to comply fully with all relevant environmental law, and to promote initiatives that save on the resources they use.  They are committed to take account of the environment and ethical effects of their policies in their planning and operations.  Yet surely the additional mileage and the corresponding increase in carbon emissions, that the removal of Coventry & Warwickshire’s Mail Processing work to Northamptonshire will create, serves to demonstrate that Royal Mail’s environmental policy is full of hot air and just as dangerous to the environment as excess CO₂ emissions.