Sorting Office should stay in Wickford
Echo 21 January 2009, letter from Bryan Ince, Laburnum Avenue Wickford

The Royal Mail is fighting Basildon Council's compulsory purchase order on Wickford Sorting Office, which is being made so that 173 luxury flats can be built on the site (Jan 15).
   Councillor Stephen Horgan is disappointed that Royal Mail's priority is to maintain its service for customers locally.
   He says this is a prime area for much needed housing. What Mr Horgan means, is the site of Wickford's sorting office is a prime site for the property developer to extend the flats already built in Lower Southend Road.
   Yes, there is a need for housing, for council houses and affordable homes. But I don't think Councillor Horgan means that.
   Councillor Horgan Maintains Wickford Sorting Office would be better in an industrial estate along the A127in Basildon, Wickford or Billericay, or it could move into a Basildon industrial estate.
   There is a reason sorting offices like Basildon and Wickford are sited near the centre of town.
  Attached to a sorting office is a public enquiry office where people can go and collect any mail that the deliverer was unable to deliver on the same day.
   If the sorting office was sited along the A127 or on an industrial estate in Basildon, many people who do not drive would not have this same-day facility.
   Also postal areas are divided into 'walks' to which the delivery postman can cycle with his load.
   This could not happen if Wickford sorting office was sited miles away.

BRYAN INCE
Laburnum Avenue
Wickford.