Royal Mail is reviewing the future of Ipswich Sorting Office, in Commercial Road. If, as feared, it decides to close the office this will be bad for services and bad for jobs. No final decision has been made yet, but Dave Scott, Secretary of the Suffolk Amalgamated Branch of the Communication Workers Union says that the most likely plan is to shut the Sorting Office and move operations to Chelmsford or Norwich - meaning Ipswich mail will be driven up and down the A12!

Apart from the loss of jobs, collection and delivery times will be later, and large lorries making unecessary journeys will create extra congestion.

Leader of Ipswich Borough Council and Labour Parliamentary Candidate, David Ellesmere is backing the CWU campaign and urging Royal Mail to think again: 'Ipswich is growing all the time. It is short-sighted to be moving operations elsewhere, and Royal Mail should keep the sorting office here in Ipswich.'

Dave Scott says that customers, especially local businesses will suffer: 'Currently you can post a letter in Ipswich up until 7:30pm at Commercial Road, with many town centre boxes having collections up until 6:30 and 7:00pm Monday to Friday. We fear that by closing the Mail Centre and moving this work to Chelmsford or Norwich hese collection times will be brought forward.'

In recent times Ipswich has lost many of its blue collar jobs that provide a living wage and reasonable pension provision. The potential loss of up to 500 more of these full time and part time jobs from Royal Mail at Ipswich Sorting Office will not only affect local people who work and live in the town, but also the availability of future job opportunities for local working people in Ipswich and Suffolk.

We the undersigned call on Royal Mail to keep Ipswich Sorting Office open.