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Speak out for your Post Office - for The Inverness Courier

WE have entered the final week of the current consultation on post office closure proposals covering the whole of the Highlands.

It isn't too late to have your say, but it will be soon. So from Inverness and Nairn to Kirkhill, Cawdor, Croy, Abriachan, Rosemarkie and Inverarnie, please do take this chance to let the Post Office know what losing a local branch will mean for you and your neighbours.

It is deeply invidious to say, as the Post Office does, that one post office saved means another will suddenly be axed. In part, this is the reality of meeting a Labour Government target to close 2500 branches across the UK. But I think there is more to it than that.

Nowhere has that been seen more clearly than in Balloch.

I have been in touch with the Post Office in advance of making my submission, to highlight the omission of Balloch and a number of other Highland branches from their documents. Rightly, they point out that the Post Office in the village has been closed temporarily since August 2006, when Somerfield suddenly shut their store.At that time, the post office told us it wanted to restore a service. But now the offer has been withdrawn. It has tried every trick in the book to cover its tracks.

First it claimed consultation on permanent closure did take place, but only after 12 months of trying to restore a branch in Balloch.

In the dying stages of the consultation, it has conceded that neither of these statements was true. The new suggestion is that, by agreement with the Government, all outstanding "temporary" closures were suddenly and secretly dropped in March 2007,.

That is not good enough. To close Balloch post office would be a missed opportunity for the branch network's future. But the manner of its closure would be more damaging still — corroding the remarkable trust which customers associate with the post office brand.

It is time for the Post Office to stop spinning and show it is able to listen to reason.

ROBBING HITRANS TO PAY WHO?

Last Thursday, the Scottish Government's Budget was passed by MSPs in Edinburgh.

One point which was made throughout its passage through Parliament was the unprecedented lack of detail made available by ministers.

Consequences will still be emerging from the opaque accounting of the Scottish Finance secretary for some weeks to come, but last week highlighted one breathtaking point.

Under cover of an end to ring-fencing, Scottish Government funding to regional transport projects, chosen by HITRANS, has been scrapped.

The immediate consequence is that the long-promised rail halt at Dalcross cannot get under way in the next financial year as planned.

Given the SNP's pre-election pledges on key Highland transport projects, that decision is disgraceful.

Thanks to SNP ministers, our region does not even have an approved transport strategy at all, and serious funding looks further off than ever. Projects which were already in the pipeline are being delayed, if not ditched altogether.

RECOGNISING THE 'LAND GIRLS' AND THE 'LUMBER JILLS'

Not long ago, I was pleased to promote the new Veterans Badge introduced to honour those who have served their country through the armed forces.

There is now to be a similar badge to mark the huge effort made by British women to provide agricultural produce and timber during two world wars. Recognition of the Women's Land Army and the Women's Timber Corp is well long overdue.

Anyone interested can get an application form from my office at 45 Huntly Street, Inverness or by phoning 01463 711280.

Posted on: 12/02/2008