POST Offices across West Devon face a new threat to their businesses with Government confirmation not to renew Post Office card accounts after 2010. Already, pensioners are receiving letters inviting them to have their pensions paid into a bank account. The Government should think again. Not everyone has a bank account or wants one, particularly older people. The proposals could affect nearly five million people a week nationwide, many of whom are the most vulnerable people in our society and who choose to use a Post Office card account because it?s the most convenient way to collect their pension or benefit in cash. In Tavistock, we have seen how the nature of our main Post Office is changing. There are more changes in the pipeline, particularly for our sub-Post Offices. Three hundred rural and urban post offices have closed each year for the last 20 years, over 4,000 since 1997. As well as intending to close the card account business for Post Offices ? worth about £125-million a year nationally ? the Government ended its policy to avoid ?unnecessary? rural Post Office closures in March this year. Thousands more Post Offices across the country may be forced to close because of these unpopular actions , including some in West Devon. Card accounts are an important element of any local Post Office?s business. Often this business makes the difference between survival or closure. Hardest hit will be people living in sparsely-populated areas who may not only lose their Post Office services but the village shop that often goes with it. Devon County Council has recently passed a motion calling on the Government to rethink its proposals and support post offices. I am calling on politicians, both at national and local level across West Devon to join me in making representations to the Government through the appropriate bodies so that this valuable service is protected. Together we must ensure that a card account facility of some sort is retained without the compulsion to open a bank account, and that our vulnerable Post Offices survive. Cllr Roy Connelly Devon County Council Tavistock Division