Post office closures branded 'a betrayal'

More than one in six outlets will close - about 2,500 nationwide - with struggling sub-postmasters offered a £60,000 package if they agree to close.

The cull means nearly as many North-East and North Yorkshire post offices are likely to disappear within two years as in the past six years combined.

Most will be in rural areas, although towns and cities, which have accounted for most recent closures, will also be hit.

In a statement to MPs, Industry Secretary Alistair Darling said the closures were unavoidable, as more people paid bills over the internet and received benefits directly into bank accounts.

The Post Office was losing £4m a week, despite a £150m annual subsidy from the Government that would now continue until 2011, he said.

About 500 "outreach" outlets would be set up in remote communities, either mobile post offices or services based in village halls, community centres and pubs.

The proposals highlighted a succcessful mobile service visiting nine villages around Tow Low, in County Durham, suggesting it was a model for other rural areas.

Opposition parties reacted with fury, accusing Mr Darling of failing to come up with a strategy for saving post offices that were the lifeblood of communities.

Edward Davey, the Liberal Democrat industry spokes-man, said: "Rural and deprived urban communities will feel betrayed by these mass post office closures."

Charles Hendry, for the Conservatives, said: "This will bring fear and anxiety to people, often the most vulnerable, in every part of the country.

"If the local post office closes, often the last shop in the village closes as well, and a van for a couple of hours a week is no replacement for a post office open full-time."

Mr Darling said: "This is a problem that has to be tackled. Ignoring it, hoping that something will turn up, simply won't do."

MPs were also concerned that a three-month consultation meant the identity of the doomed post offices would not be known until after local council elections in May.

However, once the Post Office reveals the outlets it wishes to close, the first closures will take place in the summer, with 2,500 expected to close within 18 months.

Last night, Geoff Simpson, North-East executive director of the National Federation of Sub Postmasters, said of the announcement: "Many subpostmasters have been living on a knife edge for quite some time and at least now many of them will get the answers they really need, in terms of whether they are going to go or stay.

"There are sub-postmasters out there who are going bankrupt and they need help."

Dave Farry, who runs the West End and Ferryhill sub- post office, in Ferryhill, County Durham, said: "Things are a struggle. The simple matter is that the Government is pulling product after product from the post office.

"I have spoken every single day to John Burton Prime Minister Tony Blair's agent to try to get answers on this, but I never get any.

"What we want to know is what other products is the Government going to give us?

"We could do the National Lottery, which is a Government thing, which would help support us.

"Blair tells us that people are using the Post Office less and in different ways, but that is because the services people want to use the post office for are no longer there."

Anne McIntosh, MP for the Vale of York, said that since 1999, her Vale of York constituency had lost 19 post offices.

She said: "Further cuts on the scale the Government has suggested could potentially mean that up to 36 more could shut their doors."