| A major programme of 44 local post office branch closures has been announced in parts of Scotland. The Post Office wants to reduce the number of branches in Argyll and Bute by seven, Greater Glasgow by 27 and Central Scotland by 10.

There will be a six-week consultation period to give communities a chance to air their views on the closures.

Plans for post office provision for other parts of Scotland will be announced next year.

It is the vulnerable who will suffer from post office closures

Pat McFadden MP refers to a different world from many who actually use post offices (The Herald, October 25).

Take my local area of Drumchapel, where two post offices are under threat. Drumchapel and its area have a population of some 20,000. We have only one bank. The post offices are being used for banking facilities as we find banks not interested in handling so called "Giro" accounts. As Drumchapel has a high ratio of benefit claimants, many still use Giro cheques as their method of payment and these have to be cashed at a post office. Thus, closure will have a direct impact on benefit payment to vulnerable groups who may have difficulty identifying an alternative payment outlet. These cheques are made out in advance and there will be considerable problems in getting them changed to another office.

The minister must realise that these cheques go to very poor and vulnerable people who require considerable assistance with simple things such as form-filling. People will get confused and will not get Giros in time at the right office. Many such people do not have bank accounts for direct payments of Giros. Home helps who are known to local post office staff often cash Giros on behalf of the old or vulnerable at a post office where they are trusted.
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How much do the private mail companies pay Royal Mail for the last mile of delivery? In rural Scotland, it would be economic suicide for these private companies to operate commercially. Yet Royal Mail is forced to deliver their mail.

I suggest the minister carries out a more rigorous analysis which places less emphasis on financial performance and more on factors such as detrimental impact on local businesses and the extent to which closures will hit benefits payments.

Eric Flack, 70 Crawford Drive, Glasgow.

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I note with interest the comments of Pat McFadden in relation to the post office closures announced. He seeks to defend the closure programme by suggesting the government was "following trends in people's lives rather than having created them". This refers to the move towards paying benefits into post office accounts and ending payments by order book or Giro. His comments give the impression that New Labour was merely bowing to the demands of customers. This is misleading and inaccurate. While it is true that many customers over the years have opted to pay benefits into bank accounts, the vast majority preferred to use the post office and be paid by order book. New Labour, of course, ignored this and forced customers to pay benefits into either a bank account or post office account. This step was not welcomed by most benefits recipients, particularly pensioners who preferred their existing payment methods.

It is no surprise that warnings at the time of a threat to the post office network were ignored. Perhaps if New Labour MPs crying wolf now had spoken out then, we would not be in this sorry situation. Mr McFadden's time would be better spent persuading his New Labour colleagues to abandon the scandalous use of discredited PFI schemes and ending the use of consultants in the Civil Service, both of which have wasted billions of pounds of taxpayers' money. This money instead could be used to protect public services and the post office network.

Gerry McMahon, Assistant Secretary, Public And Commercial Services Union, Glasgow North Branch.