THE Archbishop of York John Sentamu has criticised the Government for threatening to close local post offices.

He said: "When a local post office is lost from a community something really special goes.

"There is a crazy view implying that only supermarkets need to survive.

"I believe small is beautiful, so when a local post office is lost from a community something really goes. That's why we are working hard in the church to ensure that the community spirit is not lost.

"For these post offices to go is implying that everyone can have a car to get somewhere else, andin terms of the environment, that does not seem to be a sensible or clever idea."

The archbishop is still wearing a dog collar in protest at Robert Mugabe's regime in Zimbabwe.

He said he had received 500 emails and 200 letters about the protest, about ten of which have been negative.

He said: "I can imagine people in Zimbabwe who do not know whether they are even going to have a meal, or where it's going to come from, as they have not got money to buy things."