PINEVILLE — The United State Postal Service (USPS) is planning to move mail processing from London to Lexington in the coming months in order to cut costs, which could hurt Bell County service considerably.

According to Kentucky Postal Workers Union President Gary Fox, who spoke at Tuesday’s Fiscal Court meeting, if that plan goes through, the delivery of mail in Bell County would be affected.

“The purpose of this (consolidation) is to take the mail that is currently being processed in London and have it processed in Lexington,” Fox explained at the meeting.

That move would affect Bell, Laurel, Knox, Whitley, Wesley, Clinton, McCreary, and Pulaski Counties.

Fox, who said he worked in the USPS for 36 years, pointed out how this would affect Bell County’s mail service.

“For that mail to be processed in Lexington, you’ll have to have your mail at the post office in Pineville earlier in the day,” said Fox.

He said that it would also slow down route pick-up and delivery.

“If you dropped your mail into the mail stream on Saturday... many times the mail could be 4, 5, and 6 days getting back to this area. If it’s a holiday, it’s even longer.”

Fox was very critical of the USPS service for this region and said he knew it would be negatively impacted.

“They’re swearing it’s not going to impact the service, but I can speak from experience. I know. Their service has suffered tremendously.”

Fox said the closure likely wouldn’t be until four months from now, but he said a public meeting would be scheduled before it happens. When asked by Judge-Executive Albey Brock what could be done to stop this consolidation, Fox responded saying that the public could contact their state and U.S. representatives with their concerns.

Stephen Woodward is a Staff Writer for the Daily News. He may be contacted at swoodward@middlesborodailynews.com.