JOBS are to go in Basingstoke as the town is hit by Consignia's plans to shed 40,000 of its 220,000 workforce.

Bosses from the mail giant yesterday confirmed that 18 jobs will be axed when they close the Basingstoke Parcelforce depot in August as part of a massive programme of cost-cutting.

Nationally, the Parcelforce business has been losing £15 million per month and the number of depots is to be cut from 101 to 51.

Spokesman Don Veale said the 18 Basingstoke employees at the depot in Telford Road, Houndmills, would either be offered posts elsewhere within the company or offered voluntary redundancy packages.

He said: "What we are looking for is to redeploy them as far as is possible. It is not a question of 18 people on the scrapheap."

He said there are no plans to reduce the numbers of postmen and women at the Priestley Road delivery depot.

Mr Veale said in future, the remaining time-guaranteed Parcelforce business in Basingstoke will be covered by the Reading depot. He added any less urgent parcel handed in at a post office will be handled by the Royal Mail.

The massive job cuts follow a review of the Royal Mail - Consignia's largest division - and will include 30,000 posts being lost through redundancies plus a further 10,000 positions that will disappear through natural wastage and the outsourcing of support services such as transport.