'They've been done over...' Fears after Manchester city centre's largest Post Office set to close

Manchester city centre’s only directly-managed Post Office is set to close this summer — sparking fears for staff and small businesses.

The Post Office has confirmed it will close down its Spring Gardens branch, which is the only city centre location managed by Post Office HQ, with the rest being franchises. The company said it is moving out of the Zenith Building site because its landlords have served a ‘vacate notice’ when their lease comes up in August.

“Consequently, we have reviewed Post Office services in the local area,” a Post Office statement said. “We believe there is enough provision of Post Office services to meet the needs of customers in the local area who currently use the Manchester branch, without the need for a direct replacement of this branch.”

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A statement to the LDRS added: “Post Office is consulting with all stakeholders, including the Communication Workers Union (CWU) and Unite the Union, to help ensure that staff affected are fully consulted as plans develop. As part of this process, staff will have the option to accept voluntary redundancy or explore any redeployment opportunities within the business.”

The Post Office has seven other branches within three-quarters of a mile of Spring Gardens. It has also promised ‘to provide additional services in future, if required’ by monitoring the traffic at nearby branches.

However, the news has prompted the CWU to condemn the closure as ‘bad for the Post Office, the communities who rely on it, and the workers who loyally serve them’, and have promised ‘protests and petitions in defence of the branch’.

A similar feeling was shared by Jay Thompson, who works for an IT firm nearby and uses the branch to send packages once or twice a week. “I know most of the people in there and they have been done over,” he said.

“We are a cloud-based company, so for us we are going to come in every few days. It’s going to have a massive impact. They do everything here.”

And another business owner, a chocolatier who ships packages from the branch, also has fears for the future of her operations. The woman, who asked not to be named, said: “There’s another Post Office in Piccadilly Gardens that’s a big one, but most [nearby] are just counters that cannot handle business volume.

“If I am taking a few parcels there at Christmas, it could be 40 or 50 packages, and the others just cannot cope. They just don’t have the space to store that volume, especially if other businesses come over.

The staff at Spring Gardens are lovely and they take anything you give them.”

Also sending chocolate in packages is 63-year-old grandmother Sue Brooks, from Tintwistle, who added: “I send parcels to my grandchildren in New Zealand every month, they usually have chocolate inside, so it would be a shame.”

The closure consultation is currently open until June 12, and customers can have their say online here.

Knight Frank, the firm which manages the Zenith Building, did not respond to a request for comment.