COLCHESTER is set to be left with just one Royal Mail delivery office.

Royal Mail has announced it will be closing its Lexden office at the end of the month.

The Gazette can reveal the Coggeshall delivery office is also under threat, with bosses debating whether to shut it down too.

The proposals would mean those who usually pick up parcels and missed deliveries from Lexden and Coggeshall will instead have to travel to Eastgates in Colchester.

Lesley Scott-Boutell and daughter Jess Scott-Boutell, borough councillors for Stanway (Lib Dem), have been petitioning for the Lexden site to remain.

She said: “I’m so cross.

“We got a letter saying they were going to consult and take everyone’s views into consideration. Instead they have not done it.”

A petition the pair organised has so far collected more than 600 signatures.

Mrs Scott-Boutell said their views had been ignored.

She said: “People who have mobility issues have been asking how they are going to get their post.

“This is just going to mean more traffic through Colchester at a time when people are trying to reduce it.

“We have worked our socks off to represent our residents, but how can we do that to a company that isn’t listening?

“We have tried to talk to them and tried to show them and I feel they are giving us a big fat raspberry and just doing what they want.

“It makes a mockery out of what they were proposing when within six weeks, it is a done deal.”

A Royal Mail spokesman confirmed it was considering moving its Coggeshall office to Colchester.

She said the Lexden Heath office would move to Colchester on Tuesday, August 30.

The relocation has been blamed on the decline in people sending letters and instead using emails.

The spokesman said: “Customers do not need to travel to our offices to collect mail if they are unable to do so or prefer not to.

“Customers can arrange a redelivery free of charge on a day that is convenient for them, including Saturdays, or Royal Mail can deliver the item to a different address within the same postcode area.

“Royal Mail can now also leave many mail items with a neighbour, if customers are not at home when we attempt delivery. Customers can nominate a dedicated neighbour to take in their parcels by filling in a form at the delivery office.

“Alternatively items can be redelivered to a local Post Office branch from where customers can collect them, for a small fee.”