Urgent delivery

Sensibly, the Government is to press ahead with plans to put the service on a new footing, because the uncomfortable truth is that there is no alternative.

Beloved and respected though it is, the proud legacy of the Royal Mail, and its honourable place in this country's history cannot disguise or mitigate its parlous position. A crippling pensions deficit, falling volumes of mail, lack of investment, inefficiency and increasing competition from rivals all add up to what Business Secretary Vince Cable rightly calls potentially lethal challenges.

There will, inevitably, be some pain involved in the privatisation process as the Royal Mail is dragged into the 21st century, but the trade union stance of doing nothing is not an option; indeed, such a policy, if pursued, would condemn the service to a lingering death. The injection of private capital and a sharper business sense has the potential to reinvigorate it, which in the long run will have benefits for both employees and the majority of the public who still rely upon the Royal Mail for the carriage of their letters and parcels.

However, the unions make one point which the Government must heed. Privatisation is likely to mean separation of the Royal Mail and the post office network, which could potentially be put in jeopardy.

Communities across this region value their post offices as essential components of both urban and rural life, and, indeed, have campaigned to keep open, or re-open, those branches that have been put under threat. It is essential that any privatisation plans contain provisions to protect the post offices, for the sake of the communities that they serve so well.