Dear editor, MILFORD Haven is again threatened with the transfer of Milford Haven’s sorting office and workforce to Haverfordwest.

We, Milford Haven’s six County Council electoral ward representatives, have jointly made representations to Royal Mail to retain this facility and postal workers in our town and hope that the community will again, as demonstrated in the past, join the campaign to save jobs leaving our town.

We met with a representative of Royal Mail recently who gave an outline of the proposals and responses to the observations made by ourselves and outlined below: ● This local service supports a population of 13,000 plus in our town.

● The retention of jobs within the locality is absolutely vital.

● The carbon footprint increase that these proposed changes will bring.

● The financial loss within the business economy of Milford Haven – petrol, purchases made by employees etc.

● The Sorting Office would become an empty building within an increasing empty business property portfolio within the town if these proposals go ahead. The threat of the premises becoming derelict and vandalised with lack of monitoring is clear.

The lack of action by Royal Mail not to rent or lease the lower floor of the present building since the restructuring of post offices may well have impacted on the lack of resources to support the present maintenance costs.

● The reduction in service to large companies e.g. Port Authority, refineries, not having access to collection of mail at 8.30am direct from the current sorting office. The increase in carbon footprint and congestion on the road between Milford Haven and Haverfordwest within this daily time scale if they wish to retain this facility.

● The familiarity of local postmen knowing the location and residents and the future scenario ‘local jobs for local men’ will perhaps be lost as time progresses.

That concerns around Royal Mail negotiations that have taken place with staff centre on: ● Usage by employees of post office vehicles to take home. The increased impact of parking on roads within the town, which is at present a concern and future predictions increasing the demand and lack of provision make this proposal very prohibitive.

● A travel payment to employees using their own vehicles between Milford Haven and Haverfordwest running alongside the franchise cost of retention of packages at the local post office would in part be counter productive.

We acknowledge the changes within the usage of the postal service and hope that the above demonstrates our desire to support the representations made by the community we represent and the reasoning behind the retention of this business in an ever growing population of residents in Milford Haven.

Therefore, for the reasons outlined in this letter, we cannot support your proposals to move the Sorting Office from Milford Haven to Haverfordwest and would urge you to drop these plans in their entirety.

Cllr Anne Hughes Cllr Rhys Sinnett Cllr V Stoddart Cllr D Fellows Cllr M Stoddart Cllr S Hudson