Glasgow East MP John Mason has welcomed the announcement that the Post Office will retain the Post Office Card Account (POCA) contract.

The decision had been subject to long delays since the summer, causing huge uncertainty for postmasters and their customers.

Across Glasgow, hundreds of people had signed up to show their support for the Post Office retaining the contract and that level of people power appears to have had an impact.

In recent days speculation had been rife that the contract had been awarded to Paypoint but the decision to allow the Post Office to continue supplying the service is long overdue relief.

Commenting on the decision the SNP's John Mason said: "Local people can be rightly proud of the part they have played in putting pressure on the Government to allow Post Offices to continue providing this service.

"This decision has been long overdue and after the way in which the Post Office network has been treated in recent years by the Government this is at last some much needed relief.

"The uncertainty caused by months of delay in awarding this contract created a great deal of unnecessary worry for Post Offices, particularly as it comes in the wake of a controversial contraction of the Post Office network.

"There is still work to be done keeping pressure on the Government to actively promote the Card Account service to benefits customers an I will certainly be pursuing that issue."