GOVERNMENT plans to close hundreds of post offices are already leading customers to shun some branches, even though it is not known when the axe will fall, it has been claimed.

Geoff Simpson, North-East executive director of the National Federation of Sub-Postmasters, said yesterday: "We know that people have got it into their heads already that some post offices are going to close - so they don't go into that post office or use another one instead.

"Because of what is happening, there is an awful lot of information out there that is incorrect."

There is growing frustration among sub-postmasters, who say they are "in limbo" over the proposed closures.

About 2,500 post offices are to shut as the Government attempts to stem financial losses from the network - with a minimum of 200 expected to be lost in the North-East and North Yorkshire.

The Royal Mail is not expected to begin fleshing out detailed proposals on local closures until the summer, once the Government has formally responded to the results of a 12-week public consultation.

Mr Simpson, who has run a post office in Helmsley, North Yorkshire, for 19 years, said post offices' fate must be decided sooner rather than later and called on the Government to speed up its review of the network.

He also suggested that the Government had planned deliberately not to make any further announcements about the closures until after the May 3 local elections.

Mr Simpson said: "It seems that it is not in the Government's interests at this moment in time to begin saying which offices can close because it is highly likely it would affect their election results.

"This is not doing public confidence in the service any good. People come in and ask our members if they are going to close and the answer is they don't know.

"Everybody is in limbo and nobody knows whether they are going to stay or go. It is not a nice feeling."

Anne Pratt, who runs a post office in Gainford, near Darlington, said: "We are trying to reassure customers without having the reassurance ourselves.

"People are just dangling - they don't know if they are going to get the chop or not."

Anne McIntosh, the Conservative MP for the Vale of York, said: "If people are already turning away from post offices simply because they believe they are to close, I would view that development with great alarm.

"We believe post offices should be given greater freedom to offer a wider range of commercial products and I would like to see each and everyone of us, particularly those living in rural areas, spending £5 or £10 in their local post office each week to try to keep them going."

A spokeswoman for the Department of Trade and Industry said it was endeavouring to carry out the network review as swiftly as possible, but with about 2,500 consultation responses having been received nationally, it could not rush.

She said the Government would publish a formal response in May to the consultation over the closures, which ended last month.

Graham Moore, a Royal Mail spokesman, said there was no evidence that customers were deliberately staying away from some post offices believing they would be closing.