City Council meeting with Royal Mail

Along with another eight Dundee City Councillors and the council’s Chief Executive, I today met with senior officials from Royal Mail in the hope of persuading Royal Mail to think again over its closure of the Crichton Street Collection Office.    Unfortunately, there was no willingness shown by Royal Mail at the meeting to reconsider the closure decision.

It is disappointing that Royal Mail is unwilling to reconsider the closure of the Crichton Street facility.   All nine councillors who attended the meeting – representing wards right across Dundee - highlighted the many concerns raised by customers that, given that the Crichton Street Office was a very central facility in the city and the alternative facilities are not located in the city centre, this closure is having a detrimental impact on customers, particularly those who rely on public transport to visit Royal Mail facilities.

It was a lengthy meeting but at the end of it, what was very clear is that Royal Mail is not going to reconsider the closure or look for alternative City Centre facilities and that’s a deeply regrettable situation.

A number of us also highlighted the ridiculous result that residents in parts of the West End who live very close to the Edward Street collection office but, because their postcode is DD2 rather than DD1, have to go all the way to the remote Baird Avenue collection centre to collect their item.    It would make far more sense that this part of DD2 did not have to travel to Baird Avenue, given the distance and the extremely poor public transport links.

The Royal Mail officials did agree to look again at the disabled access at Baird Avenue and signage at the office and also indicated that a pilot was being introduced elsewhere in Scotland that, if successful, would widen the re-delivery opportunities for customers.   However, although all the councillors present stressed the loss Crichton Street’s facility was a real loss to Royal Mail customers, it is clear that Royal Mail officials are not willing to reconsider the decision.    This will be greeted with dismay by the large number of West End residents who have expressed concern about the loss of the long-standing City Centre collection office.