DEAR EDITOR - Further to Neil Goodwin's correspondence published in the Advertiser/Messenger last month with regard to reform of public services and in particular Consignia/Royal Mail.

In a perfect world it would probably be desirable to keep the company state owned.

Unfortunately even though an additional £100 billion has been raised through various forms of taxation, the Chancellor still faces a massive shortfall in revenue for government spending of £12 billion per anum.

Keeping the Post Office publicly owned and re-nationalising Britain's railway network would be fearfully expensive and place an unacceptable additional burden on the already hard-pressed taxpayer.

Consignia/Royal Mail in the last financial year lost £1.1 billion, which is probably why they intend to close three thousand urban Post Offices, make thirty five thousand postal staff redundant and place a £14 per week charge on individuals and businesses who wish to have their mail delivered before 9am daily.

However, back in 1970 the Post Office was delivering thirty million letters a day.

Consignia are currently delivering eighty million letters daily which is the equivalent of Christmas mail levels thirty years ago.

The amount of mail carried by postmen is now so great that the prospect of thirty five thousand job losses in the industry, and the implications this has for quality of service is of profound concern to the general public, and unless this situation can be resolved to the satisfaction of Post Office staff and the public, then I see no alternative but to allow full competition in the postal business!

With regard to Britain's railways - which are in an appalling state following fifty years of under investment, again expecting the taxpayer to fund the massive task of replacing track etc is not an option.

Last year Britain's private debts, credit cards, loans etc reached the frightening level of £740 billion, which means that the average individual faces huge loan repayment costs.

This figure has of course increased with even more borrowing and does not take into account Government borrowing which is also massive.

The money just isn't available for massive public spending and further tax increases would cripple Britain.

Working with the private sector is the only option for the moment, where appropriate and cost effective.

John A Crean,

Ashmead Rise,

Cofton Hackett