Postal deregulation will hit countryside and the elderly

AS a customer who does not live in close range of a branch, I feel very strongly about the postal regulator’s plans to sell off the Post Office.

There will be many private firms only too willing to deliver bulk mail to towns and cities, but where will that leave people living in areas where there are only a few houses?

Does the regulator really think that the Post Office can ever survive once it has granted licences for private firms to cherry-pick, leaving just the unprofitable deliveries?

I think that every MP will know that it is impossible for the Post Office to compete on these terms.

It is not enough for the government to just sit on the fence when our most valuable public assets are being destroyed under their very noses.

If they do not act now to defend our public services, it could well be their downfall at the next general election.

It will be the rural areas that will again be the worst affected, many of those hit being pensioners who do not have any other form of communication other than the telephone and written correspondence.

Is the government really going to allow them to be denied the universal service that has become a great British tradition over so many years?

It will be a sad day if the public allows this government to sell the Post Office that they once fought for, so I ask all readers to throw your support behind a public Post Office and lobby your MP.