Local MSP, John Mason, today (Monday) visited Royal Mail’s G31 Delivery Office during their busiest time of year – the Christmas season.

The SNP Member of the Scottish Parliament for Glasgow Shettleston was given a tour of the sorting centre by Royal Mail management, and met the other staff who were working hard to get all the Christmas cards and parcels out to residents on time.

Royal Mail estimates that 40 million people will do their shopping online – and therefore need parcels delivered.  Also, a massive 700 million Christmas cards will pass through the mail system.

The last recommended posting date this Christmas for 1st class mail is Friday 20 December 2013 and for 2nd class mail it is Wednesday 18 December 2013. Overseas dates may be considerably earlier.

After the visit to the delivery office in Fullarton Drive, John Mason MSP said:

“Having fought Royal Mail’s plans to close Bridgeton, Shettleston and Baillieston’s local sorting offices, it was with fairly mixed feelings that I visited the new delivery centre today.

“There is no doubt that delivery offices process a huge amount of mail, and are the backbone of Royal Mail’s network.  I still think Royal Mail were wrong to close down the local sorting offices which clearly went against the wishes of the public.

“However, visiting delivery offices at this time of year makes you realise just how busy our post men and women are over Christmas. They clearly work very hard to ensure that all our Christmas presents and cards reach us on time and I am sure we are all incredibly grateful for the work they do – often in inclement weather conditions”.