SUB-post offices are a vital part of our social fabric and your local community, and they provide vital services for many people, especially the elderly.

Under this Government, a quarter of the post office network has already closed, and more cuts are expected as a result of Labour's plans to abolish the Post Office Card Account in 2010.

Royal Mail bosses have even suggested that the post office network could be reduced to just 4,000 branches, so further cuts are clearly a threat. In order to ensure the survival of local post offices, Conservatives have launched the Post Office Action Plan.

This gives sub-post offices greater freedoms to diversify, calls for more central and local government services to be provided through branches.

It also campaigns for the Government to review their decision to abolish the Post Office Card Account.

This is a clear long-term strategy which will give post offices a new lease of life, something that the Government have clearly failed to deliver. I am inviting everyone to write to their MP to support our plans.

Alan Duncan MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Trade, Industry and Energy, House of Commons, London.