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Councillor Richard Foster, chair of the Skipton and Ripon area committee, and member for Upper Wharfedale, said the closure, due to take place in the summer, would have a great impact on the community.
He told last week’s meeting: “I feel this has been done without any consultation, they (Royal Mail) arrived in the office and told the staff they were shutting it and that is as much consultation as has gone on.
“I’d like to ask that they turn up and explain their business plan and why they are doing this in a rural area location.
“I don’t know if anyone has any rural-ish sorting offices, but they will also be doing it with someone else shortly.”
Cllr Foster added that Royal Mail planned to move staff to the Skipton office, but wondered if that meant all staff being eventually moved to Keighley and then to Bradford.
“It has always served seven jobs in Grassington; all those people now will have to drive to Skipton to do their day’s work and then drive home again, having delivered all round the local area, which isn’t environmentally friendly and the next generation of all those jobs will be Skipton jobs, not Grassington or Threshfield jobs.”
Skipton MP Sir Julian Smith held a meeting on Thursday with representatives of Royal Mail.
The meeting addressed the impact of the closure on local residents, job security, and the challenges posed by increasing parcel volumes.
After the meeting, Sir Julian said: “I remain deeply disappointed by the decision to close Grassington Sorting Office.
“This office provides an essential service to many local residents in one of the most rural areas. I have made strong representations to Royal Mail and I will continue to engage with them, the Communication Workers Union and Councillor Richard Foster to raise resident’s and worker’s concerns.”
A change.org petition has been launched in an attempt to stop the closure. As of Monday this week, it had been signed by 1,520 people.
Royal Mail says it plans to relocate to the larger dedicated delivery office in Skipton where there are better facilities. It says deliveries will continue as normal and with any undelivered items sent out the next working day,
