IT IS disappointing to report to our readers that we have heard nothing from Downing Street in response to our pleas for the government to reverse its decision to close Newport and Wales' passport office.

We wrote to the prime minister David Cameron, a month ago, calling on him to have the decision reviewed.

We also delivered a 24,000 signature petition to his door ten days ago - but we have heard nothing about that either.

In our experience it is highly unusual for a letter and a petition from a newspaper to a senior politician to be ignored.

In the past, we have at least had the courtesy of an acknowledgment card from a minister's staff.

We recognise that Mr Cameron has plenty on his hands, but the usual procedure is for someone lower down, eg the secretary of state for Wales, to be delegated to deal with such matters.

In this case, we have had no response from Welsh secretary Cheryl Gillan or anyone else in the government.

We do not want to jump to conclusions, but we get the distinct impression that the prime minister, the secretary of state and the immigration minister Damien Green believe that if they ignore us, we will go away.

Their behaviour somewhat resembles that of the three wise monkeys, and you can take your choice as to which of them sees no evil, hears no evil or speaks no evil.

However, we want to reassure the passport office staff that we will not let the matter drop.

It is grossly unfair to single out the Newport office and axe 300jobs - with the resulting damage to the local economy and it is a gross insult to Wales to rob it of its only passport office.