PARCELFORCE depots in Dartford and Canterbury are to close with the loss of 142 jobs. And eight jobs are to go at the Gillingham depot as parent company Consignia takes steps to cut costs by more than £1.2 billion.

Consignia has targeted its loss-making Parcelforce Worldwide operations first in a sweeping three-year rationalisation programme.

At Dartford, 50 jobs are to go by July with the closure of the Parcelforce depot, on the Questor Business Park. Dartford is a satellite operation to the Charlton depot, which will also see 103 job losses.

In the east of the county, the axe falls on 92 jobs with the closure of the Parcelforce depot in Broadoak Road, on the Broadoak Industrial Estate. Canterbury is a satellite operation to the Medway depot, in Chieftans Close, Gillingham Business Park, where eight jobs have been axed.

A Consignia spokesman stressed that most of the positions can be lost through natural wastage or voluntary redundancy.

“We are hoping that we do not have to have compulsory redundancies and that jobs can be found elsewhere in other parts of the Post Office,” she said. Staff at Dartford, Canterbury and Medway, were told of the jobs cuts as they arrived for shifts after the weekend.

The announcements were made after lengthy negotiations with the Communications Workers’ Union. Parcelforce depots will be halved, from 101 to 51 - including the closures at Dartford and Canterbury. Depots in Tonbridge and Medway have won a reprieve, however. They are among almost 60 to remain open.

Announcing the plans, Consignia chairman Allan Leighton said: “Consignia is in a perilous position - losing more than £1.5 million every day. Parcelforce Worldwide is losing £15 million per month as we have failed to reduce our costs fast enough as business has declined.

We need to renew our operations and half the financial losses which put key services at risk.”

Restructuring Parcelforce and rationalising transport operations will provide cost savings of £460 million. The Kent job losses are among 15,000 posts due for the chop - 13,000 of them through redeployment or redundancy.

From July, Parcelforce Worldwide will coincentrate solely on the growing market for time-guaranteed, next-day and two day express deliveries. Consignia will transfer its universal parcel service to Royal Mail, which will use its existing network to provide a uniform and “affordable” parcel delivery service to every UK address, no matter how remote.

Consignia’s chief executive, John Roberts said: “We are talking to our people whose jobs are directly affected in face to face meetings throughout today. We are determined to offer as many of them as possible a genuine option to stay with the business, or to take a voluntary package. We are also committed to maintaining our on-going dialogue with the trade unions.”