IT was not surprising to read of yet another account of sheer incompetence by Royal Mail, when it was reported that a letter had been delivered to a house in Ramsbottom instead of an address in Birmingham.

This incident, along with many others, only goes to show that in the year 2004, and after seven years of a New Labour Government, the British postal service is shot. So too is our easy access to post office counter facilities, our ability to rely on dependable communication networks and our claim to being a nation of civilised efficiency.

It's also perturbing to know that New Labour have put the entire future of British democracy at risk by, at the forthcoming local elections, committing the entire north west electorate to a postal vote-only ballot and trusting Royal Mail to get it right.

Post Offices are now closing faster than any alternative can be found to the vital service they once provided. The men in suits -- presumably the same ones responsible for the costly Royal Mail to Cosignia name change fiasco -- have ruined what was once a great public service for the people of Britain.

We can only claim to be a civilised society if reliable communication and access to services can be securely guaranteed. It should not be too difficult a task to carry out, especially at this stage in Royal Mail's 300-year history.

Closures of post offices are a regressive step; it denies a necessary service to many people who have come to rely on them.

It is now acknowledged that millions of letters go missing, are lost or wrongly delivered every year. In addition mail collection and delivery times are literally anybody's guess. Royal Mail's answer to all this is to simply slash services yet further.

The Government is of little help either. It seems to turn a blind eye to Royal Mail's fancy ideas of so-called "modernisation" and, as it does so, post offices in towns and cities across Britain continue to close.

All this will set the country back because a vital public service is no longer run as a public service. Before long Great Britain will soon grind disastrously to a standstill.

JEAN ALLISON (Mrs)