SOUTH West Surrey MP Jeremy Hunt has welcomed the news that the Post Office has been awarded the contract to continue providing the Post Office Card Account.

The Card Account is used by four million people, including two million pensioners to receive their benefits and pensions.

The Government announced, in December 2006, that there would be a successor to the account, and a tender process was started.

However, in order to support a viable Post Office network, the decision has been taken to cancel the competitive tender.

A new contract has been awarded to Post Office Ltd which will run initially from 2010 to March 2015, with the possibility of an extension beyond that.

"This is great news for the many people that campaigned for their local post office to keep the card account," said Mr Hunt.

"I received several hundreds of campaign cards expressing support for the Post Office Card Account and I agree with all those people that post offices need to be able to provide as many services as possible to survive. 

"My only regret is that the Government messed around for so long, which meant uncertainty for postmasters and the public alike."