The city could be left with only 20 post offices if the contract to process millions of pension and benefit payments is awarded to a rival bidder.

Of course it is right that the Royal Mail and its services should be open to scrutiny and expected to meet certain standards.

Yet sounding the death knell for 80 post offices is surely taking things a step too far.

If the contract is handed to PayPoint, which operates out of corner shops, off-licences and garage forecourts, it would consign those POs to the scrapheap.

That would be a hammer blow for many communities that rely on branches dotted across the city.

It is scarcely believable that we could see almost all of our post offices disappear in such a short space of time.

We are already losing 23 in Leeds and cannot afford to lose any more.

The Government should think long and hard before it makes its final decision.

These post offices are cornerstones of the communities they serve.

Making the wrong decision will deprive us of a British institution, one on which so many of us rely.



Banking furore

THE move to slash interest rates by a whopping 1.5 per cent was a bold bid to kickstart the flagging economy.

Yet the desperate measure to dig us out of our current economic hole was almost scuppered by banks unwilling to pass the cut on to customers.

Many of the big high street names dragged their heels before agreeing to extend the three per cent figure to the public – the lowest level for borrowing since 1955.

It is hard to escape the feeling that considerable pressure had to be brought to bear on the banks by Chancellor Alistair Darling before they eventually gave in.

That sticks in the craw at a time when the Government is using taxpayers' money to bail out banks at risk of going under.



Welcome stand

AT least one banker has shown he's not a greedy fat cat who is simply in it for the money.

Chris Smyth has turned his back on the commercial world to head a not-for-profit local co-operative bank, the Leeds City Credit Union.

His decision was partly due to anger at the financial collapse.

Chris says it has cost small shareholders their savings while directors and executives have walked away 'scot-free'.

Isn't it refreshing to hear of a banker with a sense of morality?

Let's hope Chris makes a real difference through his work with the credit union, which helps those people the big lenders won't.

His less-than-popular industry could do with a few more like him right now.