To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S20-9423 by Ross Finnie on 23 March 2006, what the outcome was of the meeting between the Minister for Environment and Rural Development and Barry Gardiner MP regarding the erosion of rural postal services. At my meeting on 6 March 2006 with BarryGardiner MP, then minister with responsibility for postal services, I had a constructivediscussion about post offices and rural service provision which gave me an opportunityto hear the problems that the post office network faces while expressing my ownviews on the importance of the network in Scotland.