I was interested to read Cllr Dawn Austin's allegations last week about Cornwall's Liberal Democrat MPs not supporting our rural post offices.

To me this seemed a slightly odd statement for her to make. I decided to do some digging of my own and checked out, through Hansard the Parliamentary record, the full picture.

I have read for months in the pages of the Cornish Times and Western Morning News about the lengths our Cornish Liberal Democrat MPs have gone to on our behalf to prevent the Government from ending benefits payments through Post Offices. This measure will hit Post Offices hard.

The Conservative parliamentary motion that Cllr Dawn Austin refers to actually praised the previous Conservative Government's record on Post Offices. I am not surprised that Cornwall's local Liberal Democrat MPs would not support such a motion.

In fact I would have been appalled if they had supported this motion because under the previous Conservative Government over 4,000 Post Offices closed down!

This is not a record to be proud of but one that would lead most normal minded people to hang their head in shame, it's certainly not a record to boast about in a letter to the local newspaper.

Vera Preston

Saltash