A union has warned that homes around Thetford and Brandon will receive their post later each day if proposals to close Ipswich's sorting office are agreed.

The sorting office, which deals with post for the IP postcode, could close under Royal Mail's review of its services.

It would mean that post for the Thetford and Brandon areas would be sorted in Chelmsford adding extra hours to delivery times.

David Scott, branch secretary of the Communication Workers Union (CWU), told Thetford Town Council on Tuesday night that post would be delivered later each morning while times for the last post would be brought forward, if the Ipswich base shut.

He said: 'It if closes it affects everybody in the IP postcode area.

'If it goes down to Chelmsford it will have a bad knock-on effect. It (the post) will come even later.'

Thetford councillors resolved to write to Royal Mail to express their concerns at the proposals to shut Ipswich's sorting office, which employs 230 people.

Mildenhall Parish Council and Brandon Town Council have also written to Royal Mail with their fears.

A spokesman for Royal Mail said they were 'looking at a number of options' in Ipswich but no formal proposals had been agreed.

They added that the review was being undertaken in line with an agreement between the Royal Mail and the CWU for modernising the business called Business Transformation 2010 and Beyond.

The spokesman said: 'Against a backdrop of the huge growth in electronic communications and the resulting decline in overall mail volumes, Royal Mail is investing in one of the biggest modernisation programmes currently underway in UK industry.

'We need to make sure that we have world class facilities which provide the most efficient and effective network for transporting, processing and delivering the mail.'

The modernisation programme has involved the closure of sorting offices across the country but the CWU has pledged to fight the threat to Ipswich.