The trouble with averages is they do not have each post office attendance and why.

Staveley Post office in Cumbria is up for sale, so is the one in Hemswelle Cliffe, Lincoln.

Both have vast community and tourism customers that buy stamps, and get postal orders, pensions or parcel services as vital socially cohesive hot spots.

Both have more than 200 guests a week, more than any hotel could have.

Watching the Apprentice, Sir Alan says sell to the trade and this is what they do.

Postmasters are vital to the Royal Mail concept. It is one step to Republicanism to destroy the institution of the masses of all classes. It is not tenable to have raffle type accommodation for the crest of our nation.

It is a sham because it forces more isolation and erodes both jobs and grassroots community. Many do not drive and cannot have a bank account, or do not want one due to call centre violations or charges. It is about choice, a liberal concept, not a dictatorship. The E R stays

Paula Badger , Wordworth county - Ings, UK

What seems to be generally unreported is that it is not only rural Post Offices which are under threat. There have been so many examples of large and well used inner city Post Offices close in recent years - Croydon, central London, Kew to name but a few - because they are easy targets for the Royal Mail.

Rural Post Offices are indeed vital lifelines, but so are inner city ones. In my local high street in south London Streatham Post Office will close in November leaving around 50,000 people with no choice but to use a completely unsuitable and inferior shared counter service in WH Smith.

Quite apart from OAPs collecting their pension and other vital services I am wondering how on earth I will be able to post a letter. It is no wonder that Royal Mail is losing market share to the likes of FedEx when you can't actually get to the Post Office in the first place

John Backway, London, UK

If post offices close and pensions are put directly into bank accounts, how will people be able to get hold of their money? On-line banking does not give you cash in hand; and where are the banks? You can teach an old dog new tricks up to appoint, but computers are not conducive to the conditions that come with old age. The staff in POs also give a personal friendly service, a commodity very much in short supply in many high street stores. We need to keep post offices for all the positive reasons mentioned in previous comments.

Janice Weston Smith, Cossall, UK

If the Post Office is loosing money, in the face of stiff competition from the private sector, then something must be done. But why is Alistair Darling's only reaction to "downsize" the service. The Post Office lost its monopoly of the mail delivery due to government policy of wanting to introduce competition into the industry. The competition does provide an extremely cost effective service - but they have been allowed to "cherry pick" the areas that they operate in. The Post Office is left with the rural, less profitable areas. New strategic business planning is required. If the Chief Executive is not up to the job then replace him. Do not downsize the service to match his limited vision. If the Post Office were a publicly quoted company, then I think that the shareholders would not allow the chairman to remain in office if his only remedy to competition was to contract the business.

Michael Nye, Colnbrook, Slough, U.K.

I was surprised that the EU input into these closures was not included in any serious discussion. It appears that the UK government has to ask permission to subsidise the Post offices from the EU, and it was not likely that this would be given - hence the closures.
it is yet another example of how our lives are being slowly but surely wrecked by rules which are exercised without anyone's knowledge from Brussels. We need to publicise any effects on the UK of daft things like this

Bill, Somerset,

Congratulations! With every cut, you are in danger of becoming more and more like the United States. Here, we have sleek, modern and efficient post offices - filled with long lines, surly employees who aren't allowed to take too much time with their customers, and accident-waiting-to-happen parking lots. Although it is about making and keeping money, and I undestand that, every small cut erodes quality of life in your villages.

Chris, Mentor , Ohio

I certainly dont want my taxes subsidising a load of post offices that arn't needed because old people cant be bothered to learn how to use computers. Trouble with old poeple these days is they want everything doing for them. Wasn't like that in my day......

Rod Munch, Northampton, UK

I wonder what do the foreigners think when they hear that in U.K., people who choose to live away in seclusion from towns and cities, expect the tax payer to subsidise their non-profit making stores. Otheriwse, the heart is torn out of their community. Can't these people form a community of their own without government interference? Should we apologise for dragging them into the 21st century by having their pensions credited directly to their bank accounts?

Vinay Mehra, Purley, Surrey

We keep hearing the phrase, "to stem mounting losses".

The Department of Trade and Industry should have been closed down decades ago when they made someone called Stokes a Lord for overseeing the totally misplaced DTI policy of amalgamating the UK's vehicle manufacturing industry. The DTI has no one at the helm, particularly at the top on the civil service side, that has any understanding at all about trade and industry, or how there are certain services that underpin the ability of a nation to trade at the lowest possible cost to remain competitive.

Post, the ability to communicate by the written word is an essential integral to the overall cost of being a part of the whole that makes a group of individuals a nation. That ability to communicate carries a cost that is cheerily born by the vast majority of the nation. Loss is an integral part of a trading relationship, not any part of the cost of running a nation.

If we wish to stem losses, immediately, abolish the DTI.

Chris Coles, Medstead, Alton, United Kingdom

It is all well and good people complaining but like everything in life if it is not used it is not needed if people have an issue with closing Post Offices then they should use them for as much business as they can or just keep quiet.
Just like the high streets if not used the small businesses on them cannot run and therefore close.
We the customer dictates what is successful and what is not by using the services provided.

Richard Welsh, Newcastle Upon Tyne,

Britain introduced " penny post" in May 1840 which was then a trend setter for all the countries of the World to follow. It is ironical that Britain which doubled the letters sent from 82 million to 169 million after the the penny post was introduced, should be shutting down one of the finest institution that improved trade, commerce and communication. While it is true that use of mail over the years has declined due to fax ,email and courier service but these post offices need innovation and changes to keep with the times. Post office can be entrusted with saving banks, other forms of communications.

M.M.GURBAXANI, Bangalore, India

One of the post offices in our neighbouring village had to go. .
One was a PO / General Store. It had buses outside the door, was close to the pensioners bungalows and Nursing Home. It wasn't wheelchair friendly, but the proprieter or his wife would always come out and help. .
The other was the sub post office. The nearest bus stop was a 10 minute walk away at pensioner speed. It was 1/4 to 1/2 a mile from the pensioners housing. Although the aisles were wider, there was a slope up to the door which many electric wheel chairs found too steep. I couldn't push a manual wheelchair up there. We had the feeling the choice was pre-decided.
The sub post office was kept despite protests. They have now added racks of groceries and freezer cabinets. Boxes of goods are on the floor. You can't get a pushchair round it let alone a wheelchair.
The PO died when they made us pay our pensions into the Bank. The Bank closed it's doors years ago. Another nail in the lid of the Village coffin.

Beryl Russell, Windsor, England

The death of any post office is like tearing the heart out of any community.not just the villages.

They are generally the main feature of any community which helps to support the local shops against the encroachment of the unreleting superstores.

Bernard Parke, GUILDFORD,

At least somebody (TomTom) knows what decimarion means...

But also think how Miss Marple would regard all these closures: surely she at least would be out protesting.

In 10 years time the UK will be absolutely unrecognisable as "economic rationalism" wins, and the EU wrecks the place.

Gerry Watts, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia

Better to free post offices to compete in other areas than handicap them and then close them because of inefficiencies. It's rather like a train operating company cutting services to a station and then saying that, because not many people use the station, it should be closed. But joined up thinking was yet another pieces of rhetoric from this lamentable "government" of the Scots

David, Surbiton, UK

Double-decimation would be 20%

TomTom, Leeds, UK

Post Offices? What bloody post offices? This tacky administration has already allowed most of them to be closed. But of course, MP's have staff (which we pay for) to go and queue up to buy the stamps etc; (which again, we pay for.) They wouldn't soil their precious hands with such mundane matters, even if they were intelligent enough to lick a stamp.

Lezli Taubler, London, UK