AN MP fears that Eden communities, will be "clobbered" after the Government announced that it was to close 2,500 post offices throughout the country by 2009, reports Ruth Lythe.

Trade Secretary Alistair Darling said that the post offices were to be axed because the network was unsustainable.

Four million fewer people were using the post offices every week than two years ago and the entire network was losing £4 million a week, he said.

"Although the proposals I'm confirming will lead to the closure of about 2,500 branches, the remaining post office network will be larger than all the UK's banks and building societies put together," Mr Darling told MPs last Thursday.

Mr Darling said that the closures, combined with £1.7bn of investment, would create a sustainable network.

But Penrith and Border MP David Maclean, who campaigned against the closures, condemned the move and described the public consultation on the proposals "as a sham".

"They plan to close 2,500 post offices. They have consulted' and lo and behold they still plan to close 2,500 offices despite a petition I presented to Parliament containing 12,000 signatures.

"The Government boasts that 99 per cent of people in urban areas will have less than one mile to travel to a post office, but then 95 per cent of people in rural areas will have three miles to travel.

"We all know that most urban areas have buses and yet 95 per cent of people there will have three miles to go.

"This is biased towards urban areas and it is another attack on disadvantaged rural areas from a Government that does not understand and does not care."

Campaigners fear that rural post offices, which play a vital social role in local communities, will be hardest hit by the closures.

An announcement about which post offices will be axed will be made in the coming months.