IT was obvious that Tony Blair and New Labour Party are completely out of touch with the problems rural communities are having when he commented that they are well off compared with urban areas.

Farms are closing because they cannot make ends meet and unless something is done now the whole of the countryside and rural communities will disappear.

I wonder if anyone has realised the implications for rural areas in the Government's latest idea for all pensions, family allowance and other social security payments to be paid direct into the bank.

This could mean the closure of post offices in rural areas and outlying villages.

The village post office is not just used as a social need, it is a place where village people meet and gather information on the health of the residents and what is happening locally, which may affect their lives.

It is also a place where notices are displayed asking for child minders and baby sitters, etc. Many elderly residents are unable to leave villages to visit banks in towns and, indeed, there are some people who do not have bank accounts. Public transport is quite often poor and unreliable in rural areas and it is a further cost on car owners, on top of all the other expense the Government has imposed on them to have to travel to towns to visit banks.

I know that we will soon be able to bank by computer and no-one will need to leave their living room, but we are not at that stage yet and many people would hope it will never happen.

Save the village post offices. There are lots of them. We need them. They enhance the quality of country life.

So, Tony, keep your hands off the village post office or the quality of rural life will suffer yet a further blow.

JACKIE SLATER, Minster Crescent, Darwen.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.