‘Keep our sorting office here in Foxton’

Fears have been raised in a Cambridgeshire village that the potential closure of a sorting office operation would cause chaos.

Royal Mail has put in a request to withdraw mail work from Foxton Post Office in order to ‘improve efficiency’ and reduce costs for the company.

Villager Mark Howard has started a petition against the closure of the sorting office operation amid concerns about a decline in service.

He said: “The postmen know nearly all the people in the village and make very few mistakes.

“When they were on holiday and temporary staff from Cambridge were used, there were mistakes which resulted in complaints and several letters being returned as they had been wrongly delivered.”

Mark fears the move could also result in a loss of income for the village business.

He said: “It might in the long run mean losing our post office all together, which serves not only the residents of Foxton but the businesses located in the village.

“It is also used by residents and businesses from the other local villages where they do not have a post office.

“We do not want to have to travel into Cambridge for stamps or post parcels.”

A spokeswoman for the Post Office dismissed worries about the future of the Foxton branch.

She said: “We are committed to maintaining a post office in Foxton and have no plans to close the branch.

“We have recently been in discussion with the postmaster about making improvement to the post office and shop.

“There is a request from Royal Mail to remove mailwork but there are no immediate plans to change the way Royal Mail sorts or collects mail in the Cambridge area.

“If Royal Mail closes a sorting operation which is based within a post office, it is standard practice to negotiate a local solution for customers to collect parcels and undelivered mail, normally at the post office.”