CONSIGNIA'S plan - more of a suggestion as yet, perhaps - to restrict breakfast-time deliveries to business addresses and to make children wait for their birthday cards is throwing up some funny questions.

What about the corner shop (they do still exist) in a residential area? Will Consignia send Postman Pat and his van and cat to take Mr Bun the Baker his buff window envelopes in the morning and ignore all the nearby homes until afternoon? Will Mr Bun's more personal mail be held back to be delivered to his flat above the shop after lunch?

What about landlords who responded to appeals to put tenants in flats above town centre shops? Will their tenants get a privileged service?

But it's not at all funny, as Dorothy Fairburn, regional director for the Country Land and Business Association in Yorkshire, points out, for firms which have moved into rural areas. As she points out, the recent Curry report into food and farming emphasised the need to take business into the countryside to revive the rural economy.

No business would move to an area which could not be certain of an efficient postal service, she said, calling on the Government to provide a rural service which was "daily, timely, and at the same price as the rest of the country". Just what we all want, wherever we live.

Mystery station

RESIDENTS of Richmond still smarting at the loss of their farm and garden centre at the old station will be fascinated to know that, from a station called "Richmond Market", they can travel to Leeds in 40 minutes.

The shade of Dr Beeching may stalk the ghostly platforms where once travellers waited for the train to Darlington (connections to everywhere else) but only swimmers travel up and down the line now, in the pool which today stands there.

Perhaps the property section of a national newspaper knows something the locals don't. In featuring a house for sale in Gilling West, it confidently states: "three miles from Richmond, three miles from Scotch Corner, ten miles from Darlington. Station: Richmond Market (Leeds 40 mins)".

Come on, Mr Byers, let us in on your plans.