FEARS for the future of York’s postal sorting office – and more than 350 jobs – deepened today after it emerged that some first class letters are now being sent to Leeds to be sorted.

Royal Mail has also confirmed that all second-class letters posted within the York postcode area are now being sorted in Leeds, despite strong union protests last autumn.

The company said then that it had “no plans at the moment” to transfer any other mail apart from second-class.

But a spokeswoman said today it was now processing “large letters” from York at Leeds to utilise the spare capacity of a “large flats sorting machine” at Leeds Mail Centre. She stressed that the change was in line with an agreement reached nationally with the Communication Workers’ Union (CWU). She said: “The processing of second-class mail posted in the YO postcode area was transferred from York Mail Centre to Leeds Mail Centre on December 29 and continues to operate smoothly”. “These are operational decisions to ensure our customers’ mail is processed as efficiently as possible.”

The original decision to send second-class mail to Leeds sparked a ballot for industrial action last autumn, amid fears that it was the “thin end of the wedge” and would be followed by other types of mail and the eventual closure of the Leeman Road offices.

The Communication Workers’ Union (CWU) threatened strike action during the run-up to Christmas but then called it off, saying it did not want to disrupt the service and abuse the support it had received from the public and business community.

York MP Hugh Bayley, who is fiercely opposed to any closure of the York office, said of today’s news on the transfer of first-class mail: “This does raise some concerns. It makes me nervous to hear that another portion of the work has been transferred from York sorting office to Leeds.”

Union spokesman Paul Clays said that the changes would be discussed at a meeting of members to be organised shortly by the branch.

“We are very concerned that the business does not seem to be consulting over any matters,” he said.

He claimed that what was happening in York could be used as a template for what might happen across the country if the recommendations of a recent report by Richard Hooper into the future of the mail service, calling for the closure of sorting offices, were followed by the Government.