The �40m centre will be built later this year at the Daventry Rail Terminal site.

It will become the centre of the Royal Mail's new road transport network.

The news comes after the announcement that about 500 jobs will be threatened when the company stops transporting post by rail in a cost-cutting exercise.

In future all post would be distributed by road and air.

Fifty-five posts could be affected in Crewe and five in Stafford.

The decision follows the failure of two years of negotiations between the Royal Mail and freight carrier English Welsh & Scottish Railways (EWS).