‘Massive community opposition’ against sorting office proposals

A PROTEST against the proposed move of the Edmondstown Road Sorting Office to the new Grange Castle hub will take place this Saturday at 12pm at the Ballyboden Roundabout.

The situation around the consolidation of the operations to the new Dublin West Mails Hub in Grange Castle West has seen pushback from residents living near the sorting office in Rathfarnham for several months, with over 4,400 signatures connected to an online petition to stop the move, as well as previous protests against the proposal.

The move is currently delayed without a date in place for plans to be delivered, and Dublin South West TD Paul Murphy feels that if the campaign against it continues, that the postal service will “abandon this move entirely.”

Deputy Murphy said: “We’re confident that, if the people power campaign is continued, we can pressurise An Post to abandon this move entirely, and that’s what this Saturday’s protest is all about.

“It’s about showing there is massive community opposition to this proposal because it would mean it’s really a nightmare for residents who would have to trek out to Grange Castle to collect missed packages.

“If people don’t have access to a car, that could be three hours travelling to Grange Castle. Even with a car, at rush hour that could be an hour and a half, two hours, based on getting stuck on the M50.”

The local politician also noted the effect it would have on workers’ lives, who would have to change daily routines to make the commute up to the business park.

An Post’s new facility opened last month and has since served customers from Tallaght, Citywest, Firhouse, Killinarden, Kilnamanagh and Springfield, as well as Clondalkin and Lucan.

Upon its opening, An Post noted that customers could expect “little change to their day-to-day service”, with deliveries noted to continue as normal and local postmen and postwomen remaining on their routes.

Deputy Murphy noted that several local post offices around the area had agreed to take packages to help with deliveries, but that the high demand has caused issues for some.

Deputy Murphy added: “Quite a large portion of Tallaght do not have the option of collecting their packages from their local post office, and instead are faced with the serious trek to Grange Castle.

“The distance time going to Grange Castle from the D16 area is even greater than it is going from Tallaght.

“It really proves the point that moving away from these localized sorting offices to centralized hubs to facilitate the likes of Amazon is being done at the expense of the quality of service that residents receive, and also in terms of the conditions at work for the An Post workers.”

An Post has been contacted for comment.