ROYAL Mail has re-affirmed its commitment to Crewe after further fears that the Weston Road depot is to close.

The latest doubts over the future were sparked by news that the site's Customer Service point is to close and its staff offered transfers to a centralised centre 30 miles away.

Over the past eight years the Crewe site has lost Personnel, Stores, Finance, Accounts, Fleet Services, Wages and Technical Services.

A worried worker contacted the GUARDIAN claiming that morale at the depot was low following the latest cut.

"We are concerned that Royal Mail are in the process of closing the site down," he said.

On Monday a Royal Mail spokesman stressed that the mail centre at Crewe was to be maintained.

He confirmed that in a nationwide re-organisation of Customer Services that part of the Crewe operation would close and transfer to one of the new service centres which were to be located in Manchester, South Yorkshire, Birmingham and Bristol.

The first of the moves would be taking place during Autumn 2000 with the remainder to follow in 2001.

"A small number of staff will be affected at Crewe and they are being offered relocation or alternative posts. The changes are being made to provide a more efficient, effective and competitive service for customers," he said.

But the Crewe workers have claimed that the service was likely to suffer because the centralised centres would not have local knowledge.

The transferred staff would also suffer because they would be travelling two hours every day - time for which they would not be paid.

"This latest cut proves that Royal Mail considers its staff as just numbers and are only concerned about making a profit," he said the workforce spokesman.

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