By DANNY ALEXANDER MP

FOR a long time now, we here in the strath have fought to protect our post offices - especially in rural communities, where they often provide a service which goes far beyond the formal business of paying pensions, providing postal services, banking and so on.

Villages throughout Badenoch and Strathspey value their post offices and have spent a lot of time and effort to retain them.

The need for efforts to keep local post office branches open reflected the fact that successive governments, both Labour and Conservative, did not seem to appreciate their real value.

As a result, thousands of branches closed nationwide - and those which survived faced a degree of uncertainty which made it hard for them to plan for the future with confidence.

This is an issue which I have been working on actively within the Government.

As a result, I was very pleased that my Lib Dem colleague in the Department for Business, Ed Davey, was able to announce a new 10-year deal between the Post Office and Royal Mail which gives local branches much greater security than in the past.

This deal covers the full range of Royal Mail products available at post offices, such as first and second class post, parcels, air mail, recorded and special deliveries.

More than 20 million people visit a Post Office branch every week to send letters to loved ones, to manage their finances or to renew passports for holidays - and hundreds of thousands of pensioners rely on them every week for their pensions.

In many Highland communities, they are the real front line of a huge range of public and financial services - bringing 'face-to-face' access to money and advice at a much more local level than would otherwise be possible.

In Labour's 13 years in office, a shameful post office closure programme saw more than 7,100 post offices close their doors for the last time.

This deal, and other efforts to enable more and not less government business to be done at local post offices, reflects a real change of direction - with Liberal Democrat ideas at its heart.

The deal adds to other recent progress for the Post Office.

A year ago we set out a radical plan to transform the Post Office's future, with £1.34 billion of government support and investment, and the guarantee that there will be no more 'programmes' of centrally-driven closures.

Since then the Post Office has made good progress to become more competitive, building on its strengths - not least the strong link with communities that branches provide.

While it will take time to turn around the Post Office's finances, it's increasingly clear the reforms are beginning to work.

After years of post office closures and fears for the future, it is excellent that we are now doing the right thing by ensuring the post office remains at the heart of local communities for many years to come.

A healthy start to the year

I BEGAN the New Year, as I am sure many others did, with a resolution to live a healthier lifestyle - preferably by getting out into our hills. So far, I am managing to go to the gym more often!

I was therefore particularly pleased to be asked to support this year's 'Make IT Healthy' campaign.

This is an annual initiative run by parliament and Internet organisations across the UK, challenging primary school children, aged nine to 11, to devise imaginative ways of using technology to solve problems.

The judges will be looking for entries that demonstrate innovative ways in which pupils have used technology to improve health in their communities.

Projects could be as simple and local as planning a school vegetable garden online; they could involve using technology to reach out to older people or people with disabilities; or perhaps they could show the benefits of building relationships across national or international boundaries.

A total of £1,200 will be awarded to each of the regional competition finalists, with the overall winning school taking home an additional cash prize of £4,000.

Winners will also be invited to attend an awards ceremony to be held at the Houses of Parliament in London in June, 2012.

I recently wrote to local primary schools, encouraging them to get involved. The competition offers a great way for schools to make a positive impact on the lives of their communities, while at the same time enhancing their knowledge of - and ability to be creative with - the use of IT.