ONE major reason behind legislation to privatise and fragment postal services stems from European Union directive 97/68/EC which has to be carried out by member states (Tell us about postal gripes, The Press, January 24).

The Royal Mail has existed for 350 years, and it has worked reasonably well.

However, organisations depend on the calibre of people involved and human fallibility means there is always room for improvement. Privatisation is not always the answer. Recently two postal company directors were imprisoned for making millions by dumping letters they were paid to deliver.

Our Government is ahead of other European states in its eagerness to break up postal services. The same happened with the fragmentation of the railway system, which has resulted in a bigger mess than when it was centrally controlled.

Thousands of EU directives have been rubber-stamped at Westminster without our knowledge which seems to indicate a Government more eager to carry out EU diktat than to represent the interests of the British electorate.

trade and industry secretary Alistair Darling says fewer people are using the Post Office. Business is being systematically taken from the Post Office; the Government is engineering its demise.

Constantly changing work procedures cause more difficulties and damage workforce morale.

Time, inconvenience and extra costs are being incurred for countless people, especially the elderly who must travel further to pay bills and draw pensions.

They will also be compelled to have bank accounts and possibly pay bank charges.

Lip service is paid to environmental issues, but our Government is forcing people to travel sometimes many miles to transact business they could do near home. These measures contribute to public frustration and anger.

A B Smelt, Sandy Lane, Middlestown, Wakefield.

PS I visit York regularly and look forward to reading The Press which I think is an excellent newspaper.