NO-ONE would suggest the closure of Church Road, Kewstoke, Loxton, Ebdon Road, Severn Road and Uphill post offices is not regrettable. However, the reality the Tories have to deal with is that the Post Office network as a whole is losing around £3.5millio

NO-ONE would suggest the closure of Church Road, Kewstoke, Loxton, Ebdon Road, Severn Road and Uphill post offices is not regrettable.However, the reality the Tories have to deal with is that the Post Office network as a whole is losing around £3.5million a week, up from £2million a week two years ago and over that same period the numbers of people using the Post Office each week is four million fewer. The 800 least used branches have fewer than 16 customers per week and in those post offices each transaction costs £17 in subsidy. Some 1,600 post offices have fewer than 20 customers a day and in those branches the cost per transaction is about £8. In addition there are at least 1,000 sub post offices that have at least six other branches within a mile of their business.When the Tories were in power they closed over 3,000 post offices and now they claim they would somehow manage to keep some open in spite of George Osborne, the Shadow Chancellor, pledging to stick to Labour's spending plans for the foreseeable future. Therefore Tory MP John Penrose and councillors need to tell the public where the extra cash is going to come from to keep open the above post offices and other post offices if they win the next election. As for the Lib Dems it is the same, predictable and sorrowful story of never having any chance of forming the next Government which gives them the freedom to promise the earth but they know full well they will never have to deliver anything.DAVID BRADLEY - Labour Prospective Parliamentary Candidate, Weston