Letter: Post Office in hock

Sir: I am a frequent user of the Post Office and Royal Mail; it is my practice to send Christmas and birthday cards and to send and receive letters. The Post Office pays out my pension, issues the TV licence and is capable of handling other banking transactions through the Giro system. In all of these functions I have always received good service at modest cost and have never had cause for complaint.

Why then does it need to borrow money ("Post Office's monopoly on letters to go", 8 December)? As a government service it has no competition; it has 100 per cent of its market; it is not a business with shareholders to satisfy with ever-increasing dividends. It has a constant revenue stream from which any further developments can be funded without recourse to any lender. No one in their right mind would hazard their future by putting themselves in hock to the loan sharks in order to gamble when they have a guaranteed income. So why then? Is it just that someone can see an opportunity to make money at others' expense?

DAVID MALCOLM

Leicester