Post office closures

Jonathan Carr of UKIP's latest comments ("EU destroying UK postal services" - December 28) are more far-fetched than usual.

He states that the EU "will not allow the elected EU Government to subsidise the Post Office" and that the likely closure of thousands of rural post offices is the fault of Brussels. Blatantly untrue.

Certainly there are EU rules regarding state aid - which present and past UK Governments have generally welcomed - but the amount of state aid provided for rural post offices runs to a mere £150 million a year.

This amount has been cleared without any problem by the Commission for the period 2003-2008 because it is not designed to keep out competition. Should any increase in subsidy be required for 2008 onwards, a fresh case will be made and again no problems are anticipated.

The Commission is not involved in, nor is influencing, any decision to close rural post offices in the UK.

This decision is being made by the Royal Mail in consultation with the Department of Trade & Industry.

If Jonathan is still in doubt about this he should check with both. If he was right, there would be nothing we could do about it. Because he is wrong, there is everything that we can do.

The Government launched a formal consultation on December 14. If you care about this issue make sure your views are heard. The more the Government listens, the more post offices will remain open.

Philip Bushill-Matthews, MEP, Shrewsbury