ROYAL Mail's two bulk mail distribution centres in Bolton are being moved out of the town to a new 'super centre' in Crewe.

The operations at Wingates Industrial Estate in Westhoughton, and in Lostock, will be shut down but the 300 people who work in them have been assured there will be no redundancies.

Staff have been told that alternative work will be found. No compulsory or voluntary redundancies will be made.

The move comes as part of a Royal Mail £64 million investment plan for the North-west involving the creation of three new mail processing 'super centres'.

The purpose designed centres, equipped with the latest technology to improve efficiency, will be built in Warrington, Chester and Crewe over the next two to three years. Bosses say the aim is to take postal services into the next millennium and meet the needs of the ever increasing amount of mail being posted.

Bulk mailing will be processed in Crewe, while Chester's new centre will replace the town's existing processing centre and will also be large enough to handle Wirral and North Wales mail.

The Warrington base will be designed to process mail from Liverpool and Crewe. The bulk mail operations, due to be axed in Bolton, deal with the large quantities of computerised mail sent out by large organisations and businesses.

A spokesman for Royal Mail said: "We have no intention of implementing compulsory redundancies. Voluntary redundancies will not be required either." In addition, he added that staff at Bolton would not be expected to switch to the new Crewe centre. He said: "We will be studying any movement of people on an individual basis. Retraining where needed will take place and we will look at moving staff to other local departments."

Speaking about the new 'super centres', Royal Mail's Director and General Manager, Ken Barker, said: "These far reaching developments amount to a blueprint for technological expansion and will therefore lead to unrivalled services for all our customers in the North West.

"Mail volumes are expected to double in the next 10 years and it is essential that we create new facilities and install the most modern handling equipment in the world so that we are ready for this growth.

"These proposals will enable us to provide an advanced and highly efficient operations throughout the region in the face of ever-increasing competition. "We are announcing our plans early so that changes to jobs can be managed through natural turnover, redeployment and retraining."

The announcement of the changes was greeted cautiously by the Communication Workers Union, which represents the vast majority of postal staff.

However, the union's national officer, Mike Hogan, said: "We will do nothing precipitate. As yet I have received no formal approaches from Royal Mail on this matter. I have heard none of the thinking - or costing behind the idea.

"It is an undeveloped proposal which we will consider in a responsible way when it is put to us."

He added that he would be seeking an urgent meeting with Royal Mail on the status of the proposal, which the union would then address in a "serious and responsible manner."

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.