MONMOUTHSHIRE politicians met with senior Royal Mail officials last week to continue the fight for keeping Usk delivery office open - but no agreement was reached.

Following a packed public meeting at Usk Memorial Hall earlier this month, David Davies MP and Nick Ramsay AM joined forces to question the director of delivery and collections and the director of Welsh affairs on the issue of cost.

Both argued that the benefits of keeping the delivery office open far outweigh the financial savings made by relocating to Pontypool, due to take place in January.

 In a joint statement, they said, "We presented a set of figures to Royal Mail and they presented a different set of figures to us.

"We had a long discussion around the likelihood of Royal Mail achieving the savings they have set out and ultimately there was no agreement"

They said Royal Mail gave a number of assurances including there will be no job losses, there will be no change to the postcodes of local residents, Usk Post Office will not close and the newspaper delivery service will continue.

Officials said there would be no change to the overall service but when Mr Davies and Mr Ramsay asked if residents would continue to get their mail at the same time they were told in "most" cases they would.

The politicians were also told the overall carbon footprint will be the same and "wherever possible" the same staff will deliver mail in the same area.

Mr Davies and Mr Ramsay said that despite the reassurances they were still unhappy at the decision making process.

"We remain unhappy at the way this decision has been made. The staff at Usk Delivery Office do an absolutely superb job and we have never had any complaints.

"The staff themselves are perfectly happy in Usk and have the support of the community.

"There is an old adage 'if it ain't broke don't fix it' and we are worried that this is exactly what Royal Mail are doing.

"We will carefully monitor the extent to which Royal Mail keep the promises which they have made."

Mr Davies added, "I have made clear to Royal Mail that I would be very happy to hold a joint meeting with them and local representatives to try and bring a satisfactory conclusion to this issue."