CEREDIGION’S Plaid Cymru candidate Elin Jones has criticised Royal Mail for not looking into alternative locations for its Tregaron sorting office, before deciding to centralise in Aberystwyth.

Ms Jones attended a public meeting in Tregaron’s Talbot Hotel, organised by local councillor Catherine Hughes to give staff and residents the chance to quiz Royal Mail managers about the proposal to close the town’s sorting office when the Post Office relocates to the Spar.

Ms Jones, who is standing for re-election as AM for Ceredigion, said: “In the afternoon I was in the final Assembly session discussing the future of thousands of jobs in the steel industry, but I was determined to return to Tregaron for the meeting. For a small community, the loss of this facility and the jobs associated with it is keenly felt.

“Royal Mail gave reassurances about the future of staff, and the service for customers, which I very much hope they will honour. But it’s still a loss of a service and of jobs from Tregaron.

“I’m most disappointed that the company seems not to have even considered relocating its sorting office to any other premises in Tregaron once it became clear that the post office was moving.

“People in this area feel as if it was a ‘done deal’ before anything was even announced.

“The local Communication Workers’ Union representative at the meeting was right in saying that, in many ways, the battle for rural sorting offices was lost three years ago when the Royal Mail was privatised.

“The company is closing several offices in the drive to cut costs; Tregaron is one of many victims.”

The Save Aberystwyth Post Office Campaign posted their petition to Paula Vennells the CEO of Post Office Ltd, on Monday, 11 April, at Aberystwyth Post Office on Great Darkgate Street.

The petition has been signed by at least 2,700 people.

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