Once again, Welsh post offices are under threat. And this time it’s much more serious. The Government has decided to take away Post Offices' contract to run Post Office Card Accounts.

They only recently forced people to hand in their traditional benefit books and use plastic cards and pin numbers to withdraw their benefits and pensions. But rather than letting it settle down, Labour wants to scrap card accounts by 2010.

Everybody then will be forced to use banks instead. They will have to travel further to collect their benefit or pension and could face extra charges or the fear of becoming overdrawn with a bank account. They are putting pressure on some of the most vulnerable, poor and elderly people in our society.

This change was of course always the plan, as has now been admitted by the Works and Pensions Minister. But at the time it was covered up and pensioners were promised that they would still be able to use the post office to collect their pensions. This is just one more in a long line of lies and deceit from this New Labour government.

It will bring an end to the traditional right to collect benefit and pension entitlements at your local Post Office. As well as affecting over 366,000 customers in Wales who currently use the Post Office to collect benefits and pensions the loss of the £1 billion Post Office Card Account contract will be a severe financial blow to local post offices, putting their future at risk. If post offices lose this important source of revenue it will force many to close down. Between them, Labour and Tory governments have already closed 1 in 3 post offices. It’s feared that over 70% of the remaining ones will be forced to close.

Post Offices are a vital resource for our rural and urban communities, and often double up as a village shop as well as a facility replacing some high street banks which have already closed branches. The post office network has been undermined time after time under the Tories and New Labour but this would be the last straw for many.

A few years ago the European Union passed laws on postal services on a European level. I opposed privatising postal services which would mean Europe-wide competition on all these services because I saw it as a threat to the deliveries and services in rural areas and others seen as 'economically unviable' and because there were no safeguards for jobs and working conditions. But while some Labour MPs and AMs say they support their local post office their MEPs were happy enough to support privatising the service. A local service like post offices can't just be seen as a place to make profit or close down. This government's obsession with profit and centralisation is damaging for our communities.

To add insult to injury, Labour is also robbing post offices of the TV Licence Payment Scheme and restricting the Car Tax service.

Plaid Cymru support the National Federation for Sub Postmasters (NFSP) campaign against Labour’s plans and if you'd like to get involved contact me on jill.evans@europarl.europa.eu or 01443 441395 for further information or call into your local post office and sign the NFSP's petition.