Star comment: Another blow for Shropshire in a black week
They consulted. They listened to the views of local people. And they are going ahead with it anyway.
After over eight months of consultation with employees and trade unions,
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It means mail posted to Shropshire and Mid Wales from other parts of the country will now be sorted at Chester, Cardiff, and Wolverhampton.
It is another blow for Shropshire in a week of heavy blows. Ludlow Festival is being axed, and now it has been announced that another annual event which enriched Shropshire's cultural scene is being lost.
Shrewsbury's International Street Theatre Festival is not as high profile as the Ludlow event, nor is it as firmly cemented into the county's calendar, but the loss of all things which contribute to making Shropshire a more vibrant and interesting place is something to be regretted. It featured street performers, dancers and acrobats from around the world and brought around 25,000 people into the county town.
As for the loss of the Shrewsbury Mail Centre, Royal Mail has come up with various commercial justifications. The amount of mail posted to people in Shropshire and Mid Wales from elsewhere has fallen by almost a quarter in the last five years, and the amount of mail we here have posted to addresses outside the area has dropped by 35 per cent.
But when you live in Shropshire you look at things from a Shropshire standpoint and for Shropshire there is nothing good about this decision.
It will inevitably mean the loss of Shropshire jobs and takes away from Salopians the hands-on ability to shape their own future and make local decisions.
Whether it be festivals, cultural events, local services or local jobs, once they are gone, they are not easily regained.
That is why Salopians need to fight hard to stop things being taken away from them.
